Fortunes swung in an absorbing opening one-dayer, but it was Pakistan who held their nerve to record a six-wicket win and go one-up in Chennai. Junaid Khan had India reeling with a remarkable spell of swing bowling, MS Dhoni bailed India out with a tenacious, unbeaten century but the target of 228 wasn't enough to test Pakistan. Nasir Jamshed played a composed, yet chancy century, but nevertheless took the responsibility of finishing the job he had started.

The difference was in the way the teams batted against the new ball. India were put in and ended up losing five for 29 by the tenth over. Dhoni toiled masterfully, fighting off cramps to take India to a respectable total, but not quite a winning one. Pakistan too looked shaky when they came out against the moving ball, but ensured they didn't lose wickets in a clump early, unlike India.

The morning had ingredients you wouldn't normally associate with one-day cricket in India - morning start, overcast conditions, a green pitch, moisture. The left-arm seam duo of Junaid and Mohammad Irfan hit the timber with such regularity that they might well have come out wielding axes rather than cricket balls. Reputations counted for nothing as India's top order was exposed for their lack of technique against the moving ball against two seamers with a combined experience of 15 ODIs.

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh were all bowled, playing down the wrong line to full, swinging deliveries. Dhoni and Suresh Raina came together at 29 for 5 and focused on picking up singles rather than counterattacking their way to a recovery.

The innings could have finished earlier had Misbah not put down Dhoni at midwicket on 16. The drop was to cost Pakistan 97 runs. The boundaries had dried up during an attritional phase in which only two boundaries were scored in the space of nearly 30 overs.

Smart stats

Nasir Jamshed's 101 not out is his second ODI hundred, both of which have come against India. In three innings against them, Jamshed has scored 266 runs for one dismissal.

Junaid Khan's 4 for 43 was his second four-wicket haul in ODIs. In 14 matches he has taken 21 wickets at 24.33.

MS Dhoni's unbeaten 113 was his first century in almost three years, but in the 50 innings in which he didn't score one, he still averaged 49.60 at a strike rate of 85.88, with 12 fifties.

India's top five batsmen totalled 18, which is their second-lowest in ODIs, next only to their total of 15 in that famous ODI against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup, when Kapil Dev's unbeaten 175 bailed India out.

The 73-run partnership between Dhoni and Suresh Raina is the highest that India have had for the sixth wickets after losing their first five for under 30 runs.

This is the firsttime India's top four batsmen have all been bowled in an ODI. It's only the seventh time this has happened to any team in ODIs.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has become the 17th bowler, and the second Indian, to take a wicket with his first ball in ODIs.

The unbeaten 125-run stand between Dhoni and R Ashwin is the third-highest for the seventh wicket in all ODIs, and the highest for India.

Dhoni's innings was of two contrasting parts. He nudged and poked his way to 50 off 86 balls, hitting just two boundaries and a six. The plan was to delay the slog till the final block of ten overs. His next 63 came off just 39 balls. As the innings closed, Dhoni could barely stand. In a bid to conserve energy, Dhoni focused on hitting out and it was a blessing in disguise for India as he regularly found the gaps, helping India ransack an unlikely 81 off the last 10 overs.

Dhoni bashed the free hit off Junaid over wide long-on for the first six of the innings, launched Ajmal out of the ground over long-on and brought up his century with a six over extra cover. His stand of 125 with Ashwin was India's highest for the seventh wicket. Dhoni's march towards his century featured an array of shots on both sides of the wicket, including the helicopter shot, the pull and the squirt past gully.

India held control at the start of the innings when Mohammad Hafeez misjudged a viscious inswinger and lost his off stump, giving Bhuvneshwar Kumar a wicket off his first ball in ODIs. Bhuvneshwar dismissed a shaky Azhar Ali cheaply to reduce Pakistan to 21 for 2 after 10.2 overs. Thereafter, the initiative slipped from India due to a combination of bad luck and poor fielding.

Jamshed was let off thrice in his innings, on 7, 24 and 68. He first set off for a single that should never have happened, scampered back but there was nobody to back Bhuvneshwar's throw. He was then let off by the umpire, who failed to spot an inside edge to the pads on its way to slip. Later, Yuvraj spilled a sitter at point at a time when India were desperate for a wicket.

In between, Jamshed impressed with his temperament and it helped that he had the experienced Younis Khan to guide him. The pair focused on preserving wickets, preferring to keep with the asking rate rather than exceed it. Younis didn't allow the spinners to settle, picking Yuvraj for boundaries through the on side. Yuvraj was India's best spinner in the T20s, but he wasn't as effective today. Raina leaked two sixes in an over, thereby forcing Dhoni to look at other options.

Ashok Dinda broke the stand when he had Younis chipping a low catch to Ashwin at midwicket, and he ought to have had Jamshed as well, had Yuvraj hung on at point. As Jamshed began to tire, Misbah and Shoaib Malik scored boundaries to take Pakistan closer. Jamshed reached his century with a pull, drawing comparisons with his innings against Australia in Abu Dhabi in August, also scored under excessive humidity.

Who ever worked with Junaid to get his swing going has done a wonderful job as Stark pointed out. He didn't swing the ball at all but was more of a seam movement. Last time he played in a test match in SL, he gave the SL batsmen a little nightmare but time was way too short for him to make an impact. I think he has done enough to cement his place in the side. Gul should now be taken off this team. There are other talented youngsters (lefties) far better than Gul. Junaid has now become a complete bowler, has got pace, accuracy, swing and the skill to move it both ways, makes for one deadly combination in a bowler. Was much impressed with the fact that there were hardly any extras or any bad balls he bowled during his entire spell. Amazing bowler, its been a while we haven't witnessed a great swing bowler, will be a treat to watch in the coming days and years.

Lovetesh
on December 31, 2012, 2:41 GMT

Dhoni 4 bowler tactic is costing games. In this game also India's 5th bowler (Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli) went for 76 runs in their 10 overs. You can go with 4 bowlers only when your bowlers are world class and match winners like Akram, McGrath, Kumble etc. Problem with this tactic is that opposition has no pressure to score or take risk against your main bowler. Also if one of your bowler has an off day then you have nowhere to hide, you have to bowl him. India need 5 proper bowlers to defend whatever they score with 6 batsmen. Which means drop Rohit Sharma and play a bowler instead.

Nampally
on December 30, 2012, 22:35 GMT

Glorious century from Dhoni & fine supporting actions by Raina & Ashwin, saved India from shameful batting. India badly needs a sheet anchor who holds one end up no matter what happens at the other end. Dhoni did an admirable job not only holding the end up but attacking as well. Indian top batsmen's defence was so poor that a coaching camp just for improving the fundamentals may be needed. C.Pujara's defence should be a model for the team to emulate. Legends like Gavaskar back Kohli for Captaincy while he is struggling to hold his place in the XI.Apart from a century in one Test match vs. England, Kohli has not done much to guarantee his place in the Indian team.After openers, I like to see the batting order: #3 Pujara, #4 Kohli,#5 Ashwin,#6 Yuvraj, #7 Dhoni,#8 Raina or S.Nadeem, B.Kumar,Shami Ahmad &Ishant. Pujara is too good a batsman to be left out of ODI & so is S.Nadeem as the 5th bowler.Rohit & Mishra should make way for these 2, for India to be competitive.Selectors: Pl. ACT.

Dhoni could have used Yuvi for 10 overs. Match could have been more nail bitting. Decent match overall. Mainly good to see bowler friendly pitches in India. Will help develop athletes in the team than sitters. We need a leaner team both in terms BMI of players and error margins in their games.

Major85D
on January 2, 2013, 14:51 GMT

Why is misbah still captain?? He should retire! Hafeez is much better!
And Azhar Ali is a better test player than ODI. Imran Farhat should come in!
I hope, the selectors have seen, that sohail tanvir cant`t mess with junaid. He is the future of pakistan`s fastbowling!

Dannymania
on January 2, 2013, 8:53 GMT

I agree with the one that said take off umar gul.Umar gul doesnt deserve to be in any international team now a days.he was good,but he isnt good anymore.he concedes so many runs!It doesnt matter if he takes 2 wickets per match at an economy rate of 7 per over in the ODIs and 2 wickets per match in T20Is with an economy of over 10!Kamran Akmal also needs to be dropped but it looks like he wont be.because i honestly think kamran's 'Sifarish' is a big one!i am hopeless about both of these players.I have been watching cricket for about 20 years now and if i can realise that these players cannot play well,how can the people who work for the admin of cricket not understand it?!answer is,that they do understand,but kamran's sifarish is too big and Umar gul is misbah's boy.I dont really dislike misbah though.Under his captaincy,pakistanis have done well,so he has succeeded,although he isnt as talented as even kamran akmal as a batsman.

srisharma_12
on January 2, 2013, 7:31 GMT

Ajinkya Rahane should open with Gautam Gambhir.Sehwag should be rested for this series.Rohit sharma should be rested if he do not perform in the next match.And Bhuvaneshwar kumar should bowl 8 overs at a time.He is giving runs in last overs.

India's bowling a misery. india should import fast bowlers from aus,wi or pak.

getsetgopk
on December 31, 2012, 4:40 GMT

Who ever worked with Junaid to get his swing going has done a wonderful job as Stark pointed out. He didn't swing the ball at all but was more of a seam movement. Last time he played in a test match in SL, he gave the SL batsmen a little nightmare but time was way too short for him to make an impact. I think he has done enough to cement his place in the side. Gul should now be taken off this team. There are other talented youngsters (lefties) far better than Gul. Junaid has now become a complete bowler, has got pace, accuracy, swing and the skill to move it both ways, makes for one deadly combination in a bowler. Was much impressed with the fact that there were hardly any extras or any bad balls he bowled during his entire spell. Amazing bowler, its been a while we haven't witnessed a great swing bowler, will be a treat to watch in the coming days and years.

Lovetesh
on December 31, 2012, 2:41 GMT

Dhoni 4 bowler tactic is costing games. In this game also India's 5th bowler (Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli) went for 76 runs in their 10 overs. You can go with 4 bowlers only when your bowlers are world class and match winners like Akram, McGrath, Kumble etc. Problem with this tactic is that opposition has no pressure to score or take risk against your main bowler. Also if one of your bowler has an off day then you have nowhere to hide, you have to bowl him. India need 5 proper bowlers to defend whatever they score with 6 batsmen. Which means drop Rohit Sharma and play a bowler instead.

Nampally
on December 30, 2012, 22:35 GMT

Glorious century from Dhoni & fine supporting actions by Raina & Ashwin, saved India from shameful batting. India badly needs a sheet anchor who holds one end up no matter what happens at the other end. Dhoni did an admirable job not only holding the end up but attacking as well. Indian top batsmen's defence was so poor that a coaching camp just for improving the fundamentals may be needed. C.Pujara's defence should be a model for the team to emulate. Legends like Gavaskar back Kohli for Captaincy while he is struggling to hold his place in the XI.Apart from a century in one Test match vs. England, Kohli has not done much to guarantee his place in the Indian team.After openers, I like to see the batting order: #3 Pujara, #4 Kohli,#5 Ashwin,#6 Yuvraj, #7 Dhoni,#8 Raina or S.Nadeem, B.Kumar,Shami Ahmad &Ishant. Pujara is too good a batsman to be left out of ODI & so is S.Nadeem as the 5th bowler.Rohit & Mishra should make way for these 2, for India to be competitive.Selectors: Pl. ACT.

Dhoni could have used Yuvi for 10 overs. Match could have been more nail bitting. Decent match overall. Mainly good to see bowler friendly pitches in India. Will help develop athletes in the team than sitters. We need a leaner team both in terms BMI of players and error margins in their games.

Major85D
on January 2, 2013, 14:51 GMT

Why is misbah still captain?? He should retire! Hafeez is much better!
And Azhar Ali is a better test player than ODI. Imran Farhat should come in!
I hope, the selectors have seen, that sohail tanvir cant`t mess with junaid. He is the future of pakistan`s fastbowling!

Dannymania
on January 2, 2013, 8:53 GMT

I agree with the one that said take off umar gul.Umar gul doesnt deserve to be in any international team now a days.he was good,but he isnt good anymore.he concedes so many runs!It doesnt matter if he takes 2 wickets per match at an economy rate of 7 per over in the ODIs and 2 wickets per match in T20Is with an economy of over 10!Kamran Akmal also needs to be dropped but it looks like he wont be.because i honestly think kamran's 'Sifarish' is a big one!i am hopeless about both of these players.I have been watching cricket for about 20 years now and if i can realise that these players cannot play well,how can the people who work for the admin of cricket not understand it?!answer is,that they do understand,but kamran's sifarish is too big and Umar gul is misbah's boy.I dont really dislike misbah though.Under his captaincy,pakistanis have done well,so he has succeeded,although he isnt as talented as even kamran akmal as a batsman.

srisharma_12
on January 2, 2013, 7:31 GMT

Ajinkya Rahane should open with Gautam Gambhir.Sehwag should be rested for this series.Rohit sharma should be rested if he do not perform in the next match.And Bhuvaneshwar kumar should bowl 8 overs at a time.He is giving runs in last overs.

India's bowling a misery. india should import fast bowlers from aus,wi or pak.

bhrangi
on January 2, 2013, 4:23 GMT

@Sinhaya : Actually I never like IPL., every 2 or 3 years it is fine but every year 4 weeks it is boring and not interesting. BCCI wants to control the umpire decisions if DRS was there then it has to be reviewed, but it back fired us most of times. @ Sachin Bashers : I wonder why they never used the irritating statement " He hits a century and we lost " may be it will take sometime. Thank god sachin didn't hit that century, otherwise our fans never realize the real problem in our team. Now they are correctly blaming Gambhir, Viru , Kohli and Rohit, if it was sachin then they will say only reason was Sachin.

on January 2, 2013, 1:01 GMT

Match will be remembered for how well Dhoni batted in bowler friendly conditions. Just fantastic!

OldRagDoll
on January 1, 2013, 22:36 GMT

It is high time to get rid of Sehwag, Gambhir and Rohit Sharma. Why not give Rahane a fair chance. How long you keep trying the failed players again and again. I am sure some guys here will now jump up with their statistics. Absolutely with this team India has minimal chance.

zesh92
on January 1, 2013, 19:20 GMT

well after reveiwing the debate about MoM I think the MoM should be shared between Dhoni because he has taken his team from 29 for 5 to 227 and to junaid khan because its not easy to control seam and swing & one should know where to pich the ball when the conditions are supportive for the bowlers and above all getting through the gate of the batsmen is something extraordinary.

on January 1, 2013, 15:41 GMT

posted by : Ali R Mallhi on (December 31 2012, 09:01 AM GMT)
Fabulous performence by Pakistan esp Junaid Khan. What a spell of fast swing bowling. I don't think you can blame the Indian top order much since they were facing one of the best swing bowling spells. Once the ball got old and wicket dried up a bit, batting became easy and thats why Dhoni was able to play a good knock. Excellent performence by Nasir and Younis, their partnership sealed the game for PAK. Its a shame that the MOM was given to Dhoni whereas young Junaid deserved it more than anyone else!...........

dude, junaid was bowling when the pitch was supportive. and you said since wicket dried hence dhoni could bat and you then appreciated nasir and younis who came much after dhoni.

about the MOM, dhoni brought india from 29/5 to 227/6 that requires talent. though nasir batted well under pressure. he was playing when 227 had to be scored from 300 balls that too when the pitch dried up completely.

Al_Bundy1
on January 1, 2013, 15:05 GMT

Please get rid of Sehwag, Gambhir, Rohit and Ishant Sharma. They are the biggest non-performers in the Indian team. Bring in Rahane, Jaffer, Pujara, and Shamim Ahmed. All the new comers will be eager to impress without thinking about captaincy and other issues.

on January 1, 2013, 12:04 GMT

if pakistan will have bowling pair like mohd amir and junaid khan and saeed ajmal and araza hasan , then they can win match any where against any team in the world .misbah should be droped from the team and batsma like naisr jamshed haffez azhar ali asad shafique are sufficient then wicket keepr kamran akmal and hard hitters like razzaq and umar akmal afridi is sufficeint , so best team is
haffez naisr azharor asad kamran umar shahid or razzaq saeed hasan raza junaid amir and the way dhoni has played its awesome its one of the best ining after ining of kapil dev 175 not out agianst zimbabve and india should play 5th bowler and they should avoid the dependancy of fifth bowler as it is costing them the macth

henchart
on January 1, 2013, 11:13 GMT

@Nampally;Kohli struggling to hold his place in team? Are you serious? The guy has smashed over 1000 runs in a calender year and been a big part of excellent run chases against SLK and Pakistan early in 2012.Kohli may not be a captaincy material but questioning his place in team is ridiculous.On the contrary the duo of Raina and Yuvraj Singh have flattered to deceive in tests .

on January 1, 2013, 8:04 GMT

Bad days do come to teams but i feel the rainy days are prolonged for india keeping in view their bowling assets u cant get a team out with 3 part timers kumar is a new face and has impressed but the others are below par as Dhoni himself says ' that we arent utilizing one bouncer how would we use two".batting is an aspect while bowling is another india seemed to lack in both

on January 1, 2013, 6:25 GMT

gamhir 's40+ sehwag's 35+ virat's 51+yuvraj"S 38+ raina's 36 +dhoni's 52 +ahiwn's 21+bhuvaneswar list-a 30= 303 .....much more than req.. batting india have.calculate pakistans then it is nowhere but still india want to play seven batsman..especially out of form rohit...buddy give unmukt a chance,akshat reddy ,shami ahmed are much better performers than rohit and ishant even fit irfan can bat better than rohit..still irfan is considerd to be a bowler,ashwin made a test century and nearly missed one....stii a bowler isahnt takes less tan 3wicket per match in tests and that even due to last year wi tour..shami's economy and average is grt...bt we are coservative....we want to make those things strong which are already strog...guys batting can collapse 3 out of 10 chances. bowling may collapse at 7 out of 10 instances..that too for world clss bowling...dindia is hardly a t20 death bowler.shami is swin bowler..yadav can do well i opening overs..ojha ashwinis best for middle over.irfan too

spinkingKK
on January 1, 2013, 6:21 GMT

To everybody who are making comments about Rohit Sharma, he has always been selected for the wrong format. I think his game is suited for the top most level of the game - Tests. When India had the opportunity to unleash him into the test matches when he was in a terrific form in Australia, they didn't. They persisted with Dravid and Laxman. If Kohli and Sharma were both playing together in Australia, India could have even won that series. India should play the players like Yousuf Pathan regularly in ODI's. Also, I believe Tendulkar shouldn't have retired from the ODI's where he can make centuries very easily. Instead, he should have retired from the tests. Also, Tendulkar's presence seem to have been bringing some seriousness to Sehwag's and Gambhir's batting. Why worry about a World cup which is going to happen in 2015?

Ali.Mirza
on January 1, 2013, 5:49 GMT

indian fans are blaming umpire for wrong decision of Nasir Jamshed caught behind?
I just want to remember that only India(BCCI) is against DRS!
why you not supporting DRS?
otherwise you dont have any right to protest against poor umpiring!
think!

charithdasun
on January 1, 2013, 5:13 GMT

How about Junid Khan I can't remember Kohli done by a pacemen like that.India batting lineup is only good against mediocre bowling attacks like SriLanka.They definitely struggled against good pace attacks like SA,Eng,Pak.

Rohit sharma last six innings 5,0,0,4,4,4= 17 runs. Manoj Tiwari last 6 innings 22,11,24,104*,21,65=247 runs. I just want to know who is Rohit sharma related to in the selection panel?

bonobo
on January 1, 2013, 2:43 GMT

India are low on form and had a bad match, but their record in ODIs in recent years,particurlarly at home, still makes them one the worlds top teams. The 4 bowler strategy is based on accentuating their strengths, which is a formidable batting line up. Given the success in recent years of this plan, let the series play out and see who has performed and who has not. I said the same about the Test Series, India has a massive transition to make from a unique generation of players and it is not going to be easy at the best of times, the most important players in India future are going to be Patience and Tolerance.Great result for Pakistam who have recently struggled in the ODI format, which is so important to their fans. Jamsheed and Junaid, two young players on the fringe of the test side, showed qualities in their games which should stand up to the longer format, where Pakistan need to find some real depth to take on South Africa next year

on January 1, 2013, 2:34 GMT

i would like to know from pak. fans ,is there any chance of ,following trio will be selected for upcoming tour of SA i,e irfan, junaid and ishan adil, if this would be slection list,it would be a great test series to watch ,not this circus t20 or one day series, eagerly waiting for this series. But pak. is weak in batting ,when chin music will be on epitome most players will fail e,g hafiz and misbha will be total failure ,so i would like a ,great yousf" should be included in team ,it would be treat to watch.

on January 1, 2013, 1:29 GMT

@SaifIjaz31. You ridiculed India as a "best batting side"...

India was labeled as a good batting side when, (1) Sachin, (2) Ganguly (3) Dravid, & (4) VVS were in the team. And, also when (5) Sehwag used to perform. Once you take these 5 names out, it is just an empty shell, which is yet to be filled up. The potential replacements are still learning the ropes (apparently with no help from an expensive imported coach), as we saw, when they were confronted with a seaming pitch and good swing bowlers.

So, just don't call them as team with the "best batting line up" in the world. It is as erroneous as calling the current West Indies as the world conquering team!

What you are doing is what we call ' building up a straw man and shooting it down'! And, calling oneself a great shooter.

on January 1, 2013, 1:17 GMT

Both Sehwag & Gambhir are NOT performing their role as openers, well for quite some time. Keep both of them out. They are not putting their heart into it. Even in their fielding, they have become sloppy. Both are becoming negative influences on the team. It is high time, Rahane & Kohli (despite his current poor form) should open. Pujara to follow at No. 3.

Rohit Shrama have had more than enough chance. Jadeja should NOT be Rohit's replacement. Jadeja is more suited for the test format (this is the nth time I have been saying this about Jadeja). As many have suggested we should try out Sahmim, the bowler, in place of Rohit. Ishwar Pandey of M.P. is another one in terrific form as a wicket taking bowler. Get a decent bowler; not any bits-and-pieces guy, to replace Rohit-- one can't live just on 'potential', for ever.

on December 31, 2012, 21:46 GMT

Poor Jamshed!! He didn't know whether he touched the ball or not when Sehwag caught him at slip and wanted umpire to take a decision!!!

VAVAVA
on December 31, 2012, 21:09 GMT

Why is S-wag still in the team? Underperformed in the England series, and underperforming again now. Lazy, ill disciplined, and lacking team spirit - he should make way for a more professional opener. And Gambho too is getting sloppy.

Naikan
on December 31, 2012, 20:32 GMT

The continous string of losses has brought too much caution in Dhoni. While his batting seems to have the same strike rate as before, the fact that he now comes 6 or 7 down quite regulalry, is reducing his overall contribution.
If he checks his own career history he will know that his best output in ODIs has come at positions 3 & 4 (both with averages above 70).
He needs to push Kohli down the order just to give him a jolt - he has been failing far too regularly for his ability.
While India's strength is supposed to be in its batting - we must remember that such was the case some years ago. Therefore they must play 5 bowlers to have a better chance. It will also allow the team to test more bowlers. Bowler's like Praveen Kumar - who had been the only effective bowler in England but sidelined for some time due to injury, need to be brought back and tried. Having less bowlers in a match is one of the reasons our bowlers break down frequently.

jango_moh
on December 31, 2012, 20:14 GMT

when will dhoni end his 4 bowler + part timer strategy.... the part timers r raina/yuvraj, dont think thats a great combination... we need 5 bowlers!!! period!!

on December 31, 2012, 20:08 GMT

Not sure why Rohit Sharma is still in the team.. Too many chances for him.. Its time to give chances to Rahane and somone like Tiwary more chances.. Also go with 5 bowlers.. 6 batsman should be enough.. Now with new rules of having 5 in circle, part time bowlers have no way to control.. atleast play Jadeja as bowling allrounder..

pcanadaguy
on December 31, 2012, 19:59 GMT

Well played Pakistan.. Performance by Junaid, Dhoni and Nasir Jamshed are out standing.. Being a Pakistani fan I am totally agreed with Man of the Match Decision.
Dhoni's Batting was out standing under so much pressure. Junaid khan was superb. Jamshed's batting was very responsible and memorable. Over all it was a good game of cricket.
Don't want to see Umar Gul and Mishbah in the team. Catch dropped by misbah was silly. Azhar's batting doesn't make any sense. 9 runs in 44 balls not acceptable.

SaifIjaz31
on December 31, 2012, 19:58 GMT

India...best batting line up in the world??? Being skittled twice in three games by two bowlers with a combined experience of 15 ODIs not to mention 4-0 whitewashes against Aussies and England in conditions that test your technique against classier bowlers.One has to conclude that the formidable Indian batting line up is a product of flat subcontinental wickets and a fantasy spun for the Indian masses by a Bollywood culture and a glut of IPL that serves to fill the coffers of Indian capitalists and the BCCI.

nafis777
on December 31, 2012, 19:57 GMT

Why Misbah is still in Pakistani team. This guy dropped Dhoni catch with his sun glasses on while it was cloudy. This guy is burden on Pakistani team. Please find a better replacement.

prabachris
on December 31, 2012, 19:28 GMT

we got bored about suresh raina,jadeja and dhoni & co. please dhoni dont brought your CSK politics in indian team.why raina is playing i dont know?even though dhoni got century it doesnt mean he needs to continue as a captain, its good to see him to return foem as a wicket keeper batsman.sewag and gauti should get retire or to be forced by selection comitee to do so.other wise there will mbe no hope or future for indian cricket . bring unmuk chand &dawan instead of sewag and gauti if they fail replace that place with other upcoming young players .

Al_Bundy1
on December 31, 2012, 19:20 GMT

This is where India can learn from Pakistan. They keep trying new bowlers and batsmen, and in the process unearth gems like Junaid and Irfan. We, on the other hand, keep recycling the same non-performers - Gambhir, Sehwag, Ishant and Rohit Sharma. Its time to give Shami Ahmed a chance in place of Ishant, Rahane in place of Sehwag or Gambhir, Rayudu or Tiwary in place of Rohit. And bring in Pujara so that he can anchor our innings - to become India's equivalent of Younis Khan. How on earth will we discover new talent if we don't give them a chance?? Recycling is good for mother nature, not for highly competitive sport like international cricket.

Nish_US
on December 31, 2012, 18:34 GMT

ODI batsmen - in India

Gauti/Viru (rotation by series)
Rahane
Kohli
Yuvi
Raina
Dhoni

Desihungama
on December 31, 2012, 18:20 GMT

The sad thing is Best Batting line up in the world succumbed to two left seamers with combined experience of 15 ODI's. India's top 7 Batsmen combined ODI experience = 1247. What does that tell you?

Why this guy ROHIT SHARMA still playing cricket? forgett about playing for india.
why he is still playing cricket? this guy cant bat. cant bowl. cant field. Same as Our great SL pAlyers like.KAPUGEDARA .SILVA and DILHARA. something going on. Should be investigate by the Indian interligence.

Problem with Indian spinners...
The not so good enough batsmen, tend to learn the spin craft a little bit to get into the side and then try to compensate their lack of spin prowess with their batting skills

Nish_US
on December 31, 2012, 17:17 GMT

Problem with Indian pacers...

Those who got raw pace and a little way ward.....are guided to improve line and lenght & control.. and soon they lost all their pace.

Those who has swing and control but no pace.. are guided to improve pace.. and soon they lost their swing

on December 31, 2012, 17:16 GMT

i have commented so many times but i do not know never saw my comments ....indain fans think that india in a era where australia were but they are dreaming ...india won the world cup fine but after that they have been defeated in the hands of Bangladesh in Asia cup and white washed by England and Australia ...i think winning of two world cups in 2007 and 2011 Dhoni was very lucky...otherwise the indian team is in my view flattrack tigers and they will be in future ....the upcoming pitches will be dead flat and so Called Heroes will rise again LOL

Nampally
on December 31, 2012, 17:15 GMT

I appeal to the Indian Selectors to include Pujara & S.Nadeem in the Indian XI for the second ODI vs. Pakistan. It is insane putting the same team lacking one top class batman & an economical bowler. These 2 guys will answer the real need of the Indian team. India gave 77 runs in 9 overs of part time bowlers who were so poor that a National team can ill afford to play with such glaring deficiency. Also if the openers fail, the next 3 are too poor in tachnique to deal with the top class seamers. A batsman like Pujara is critical to hold one end up & stem the rot like 29 for 5! Indian ODI team has no middle order sheet anchor of Pujara's status. It does not make any sense in keeping Pujara out of the ODI XI when Indian batting is so poor. Nadeem has bowled very well in T20 & in Ranji matches this year. He is following the footsteps of M.Kartik & cannot be ignored so blatantly.He is the economical version of Ojha - an excellent "missing 5th bowler".This is the only way to be competitive.

on December 31, 2012, 17:13 GMT

India is Missing the role Dravid used to play in ODI's. Either Pujara or Rahane should play the Anchor's role

QingdaoXI
on December 31, 2012, 17:00 GMT

Long IPL is killing the cricket, it will better if IPL is shorten instead of home and away matches play only once vs each team it will reduce half number of matches, i.e 8 as there are 9 teams if Franchise are not satisfied with this make 11 teams so every team will have 10 matches and semi final and final. It will give more chance to yougsters as well as foreigners to earn and play and will also help our subcontinent players to have time to play in County cricket. All Indians and Most of the Srilankan cricketers are busy with IPL and are taking International cricket grantly. This long term IPL is killing the cricket Pakistan are playing good becuase they are nit expose in high profile tournamnet like IPL, if they do get chance to play most the bowlers will be expose and will get injured subsquently. Please preserve our cricket of subcontinent.

Farrukh.91.
on December 31, 2012, 16:45 GMT

@sobersfan, we cant match Sachin, because none of our batsmen have such high % of centuries with the tem losing those games! :p

Cricket_archive
on December 31, 2012, 16:22 GMT

Its so sad that the great cricket nation like India cant produce quality and wicket taking fast bowlers who can take wickets regularly whereas our neihbours are producing quality fast bowlers like junaid,amir,gul,irfan etc one after another.Its really a shame on selectors and bcci that they cant create a proper system to produce good fast bowlers.

on December 31, 2012, 16:19 GMT

A general observation: In too many games Dhoni, Raina and Ashwin have fared well together, when others have failed. Is the Indian team becoming factional? Does the IPL have anything to do with the morale and camaraderie among players?

on December 31, 2012, 16:14 GMT

Pujara deserves an immediate place in the Indian ODI team and be given extended run to establish himself. The current Pak and England series looks like a great opportunity to do so. Following comment by Cricinfo shows a glimpse of his ability:

...

His (Pujara's) first fifty came in in 88 balls, the second in 63, the third in 51, and the final one in just 17.

Saurashtra had been 23 for 3 in the morning. Pujara's dominance crushed whatever pressure that scoreline suggested, reducing it to an entry on the card.

...

Sinhaya
on December 31, 2012, 16:12 GMT

@bhrangi, no no you did NOT hurt me at all! I recall your support towards Sri Lanka on the eve of the world T20 finals. I wont forget what you said back then. I have a grudge at the moment towards Sanga and Mahela so whatever your negative comments about my team is no issue at all. Remember our ex skipper Arjuna Ranatunga is a big fan of SRT, Dravid, Laxman, Gavaskar, Vengsarkar etc. Just see his latest interviews given to Indian journalists. So it proves there are Lankans who admire Indian cricketers. I would certainly support India big time if BCCI okays DRS. I also request that IPL be shortened towards 4 weeks as 7 weeks is a killer and is boring.

bhrangi
on December 31, 2012, 15:54 GMT

@ bMike : Yeah we will come before the finals ., you after the finals both of us are empty handed LOL.,., I wonder when is the last time Sri Lanka win a big tournament,., Chokers tag have been given to Sri Lanka from South AfricaLast year. Yeah We are proud and happy to defeat the SriLankan team with our school team or kinder garden team.,LOL., Like you proud and happy for Sri Lanka for reaching the finals and lose in it due to pressure., at least India dominate Srilanka., Did Sri Lanka name any @Sinhaya : Sorry dude if hurt ed, you are good and sensible compared to this guy

on December 31, 2012, 15:54 GMT

To begin with, well cruised Pakistan. It was a team effort at the end of the day, unsung heroes of their side were Y. Khan, M. Hafeez (for that splendid catch), I. Khan. on the other hand I felt the top five just didnt take Pakistan too seriously.

As for MS. Dhoni's inning, he was we supported by S. Raina and the spinner batsman. and apart from those two balls (hafiz's out and misba's out) every thing else just felt pedestrian.

INDIA... we are all expecting an absolute flat, batting tilted track. An obvious mistake india ends up making and as a result of which Indian cricket sees a flurry of Batting cricketers and very few bowlers....

on December 31, 2012, 15:52 GMT

Ghambir has to go! I have never seen so much confidence placed on a failing by selectors. What is keeping him in after all this failures?

on December 31, 2012, 15:28 GMT

Instead of kohli Raina should come 2 down. He has good technique. He is not just power hitter, he can hold one end. Let him play test and we will have another laxman

on December 31, 2012, 15:02 GMT

dhonis century was magnificent ,one of the best i have ever seen in odis , but sad had to be in losing cause ,but i think the match was lost in the first 10 overs , this is our problem ,in all ,good start is what we need .Sehwags future really has to be seen ,he has lost his reflexes ,and too inconsistent

khan0342
on December 31, 2012, 14:59 GMT

Well it was not good to see Indians blaming the loss on Sehwag and Gautam and wanting them to be replaced by new guys just on that one match result. If Sehwag was not that good he should not have been selected at first place. Now if he is he will definitely play. Had Misbah caught that catch and Indian team bundled out for under 100 then who would have been held responsible. All saying Dhoni played responsible innings was that shot by any means a responsible shot. My point is that its the team that wins and lose. What we are seeing now is that if Dhoni has won and his team has lost. The reality here is that Dhoni has lost it too. He did not came at a time when Sehwag,Gautam,Kohli,Yuvi and Rohit had to play. Thankfully now they won't blame it on foreign conditions and Tendulkar,Dravid or Laxman. Hopefully Anwar Ali replaces Umar Gul. If Irfan is not 100% fit let's play Wahab. Azhar Ali should be there having 50 average shows he has the ability,strike rate will improve. Can't replace him with Umar Akmal who looks like another Afridi. Will love to see if Azhar starts playing through the covers(not against kumar though).that would be crazy.Proud Pakistani.

on December 31, 2012, 14:50 GMT

This match just shows how Ind-Pak encounters are; it just is a huge opportunity for a youngster to come on, make a mark for himself just as Junaid Khan with his sharp incisive left-armers and later on in the chase under very humid conditions another equally talented and relative new-comer Nasir Jamshed taking Pakistan over the finishing line . Well don Pak! As far as MS Dhoni is concerned, he still shows he is one very capable batsman which still augurs well for Indian cricket. As the saying goes "A captain is only as good as his team".

on December 31, 2012, 14:47 GMT

I agree with the posts suggesting 5 bowlers. What i liked from a Indian point of view was that from the 4th test between India and England, India have not meekly accepted defeat. From a fan point of view i am happy with that if not content. I guess they are doing well since they are in transition period. And somewhere I feel a Sreesanth of old would have turned the match back to India. Though A Dinda bowled his heart out, Praveen kumar would have been more effective. I feel Rohit sharma should be replaced, agreed the guy has loads of talent but Ashwin is batting better. Maybe giving Ashwin the anchor role would work for India. My best wishes with team India. Even unearthing talents like B. kumar during this period would do India lot of good. And lastly, however India say they don't need Dhoni, this is the time they need him the most. Happy for Pakistan :)

ProdigyA
on December 31, 2012, 14:43 GMT

Got to feel for the Indian team. This tour came up suddenly from nowhere just to make Pak and the politicians happy who have been requesting a tour forever. The players were looking forward to a nice break after the tough England tour and now they look so disinterested to say the least. Its good that India lost something to cheer about for Pak which always has horrible news.

Jawaidnazir
on December 31, 2012, 14:37 GMT

dhoni deserve man of the match because his inning against quality bowling and jamshed inning against poor bowling.

sillypoint6
on December 31, 2012, 14:07 GMT

let dhoni make century and india lose match every time, well done pakistan, especially junaid, you bowled dream spell, keep it up. next match the result should be the same.

hnlns
on December 31, 2012, 13:59 GMT

Though Indians fought well, our selectors seriously need to assess the value of Virender Sehwag to the team. Gone are those days when he was a feared opener who would smash the bowlers with utter disdain. Time for him to make way to an youngster who can bat a bit, field better than him and bowl a bit.

on December 31, 2012, 13:34 GMT

Bowlers who can get movement of the seam (like Junaid or the Sreeshant of the old days) have a better chance of getting wickets on flat tracks, than those who rely on swing alone (like P.Kumar and B.Kumar). So, flatter the track, better for Pakistan.

After the rains, there might have been some moisture, beneath the Chennai pitch, which helped Kumar for a while. Because of the same moisture, Junaid got swing too, in addition to his superb skills in getting good movement of the seam.

bMike
on December 31, 2012, 13:33 GMT

bhrangi:SL failing in a single test inning (with only 8 batsmen)doesn't make Indian team any better. Even though India won 2-1 against SL in Australia SL won majority of matches played with Australia (where India lost all) and India had to go home even before the finals were held. Same thing happened in Asia cup & T20 WC. So every time do you expect to win only against SL & go home before finals? lol. Whatever you say you have to accept that your team is a bunch of flat track bullies who can't even play on flat tracks and they deserve to lose.

on December 31, 2012, 13:20 GMT

No need to get too much carried away. As some guys are saying its transition phase for India. After a long time I watched a One - Day Match almost fully. Main Points
1] New Indian Batsmen though good in shot making and power hitting need to improve their ability by A LOT in seeming, swinging conditions
2] Unless a pitch is grossly favorable to slow spin bowling of Indian Spinners like Yuvraj, India should always go with a 5th bowler. Take Rohit Sharma out, include Amit Mishra or Shami
3] Enough chances have already been given to Chawla, Jadeja. Let somebody else get the opportunity

on December 31, 2012, 13:12 GMT

One small, but significant point seems to be missing, both in the article and most of the comments. B. Kumar (like P.Kumar, before him) relies on swing. Junaid & Irfan (particulraly, Junaid )were essentially getting good seam movement, both ways; which is tremendous. The only Indian bowler who could do that fairly well was Shreeshant. God alone knows what happened to him!

jb633
on December 31, 2012, 12:45 GMT

India, this is not good enough! Someone has got to shake the whole system up. There has got to be a back to basics approach and India must pick players who are willing to work hard. Pakistan batsmen are pretty mickey mouse yet the Indian bowlers are making them look like world beaters. In all fairness the bowling attack is deadly but India have got to up their game in the field. If India were serious about improving the national side they should distribute the money differently. Players should be encouraged to abandon the IPL and go and play abroad. IPL and a strong Indian team do not go hand in hand

AMAZINGFAN
on December 31, 2012, 12:19 GMT

@Babar Abbas Malik,SRT was not able to play against good quality bowling?lol have u forgot centurion odi where the same sachin sent ur fast bolwers like akthar,wasim,waqar to cleaners.tell me one pak batsman who can match sachin's records.if teams like aus,sa,eng,pak,sl,wi r minnows for u then he has certainly scored more runs against them.

karpurapu_kalyan
on December 31, 2012, 12:10 GMT

Dear Ali.Mirza,
Nice geusture bro, we do not have any complains of dhoni as batsman/wicket keeper as he is the best one India has ever had but his captaincy has been pathetic as he is strongly showing bias towards selective players result of which he is losing faith with in his team itself. Can you justify the selections of Rohit & Jadeja who are in pathetic form from more than 1 year and poor guys like tiwari's & Rahane's are travelling with team as drink boys for last two years with hardly few matches played yet they scored big and good runs on each and every ocassion they were given chance. No doubt that Rohit is best potential but not at the cost of few good players, at least he would have rotated them by least in 3:1 ratio.

Sports4Youth
on December 31, 2012, 11:56 GMT

Also I am Glad that Wahab Riaz was not preffered ahead of Mohammed Irfan for the 1st ODI.

Sports4Youth
on December 31, 2012, 11:53 GMT

I am happy that Pak have dropped Umar Akmal and won the game. It was a very wise decision. In the 1st T20 Umar was bowled for a duck and Pak won that game. In the 2nd T20 he got out to a slowly made 24 which was the reason for pak's loss. He plays the selfish game. He is not a match finisher or winner. He has never played a match winning innigs. These qualities are present in Hafeez, Jamshed and the other new commers. Umar has dissapointed big time. He is not even 10% of Virat Kohli.

Sports4Youth
on December 31, 2012, 11:49 GMT

The best of the 1st ODI was that Misbah finally gathered the courage to drop Umar Akmal. It was a very wise decision. In the 1st T20 Umar was bowled for a duck and in the 2nd T20 he kept scratching for sometime then after irritating Hafeez got out to a slowly made 24 which was the reason for paks loss. He plays the selfish game. He is not a match finisher or winner, he has never done it. These qualities are present in Hafeez, Jamshed and the other new commers. Umar has dissapointed big time. It is time that even the board dumps him for some other fresh blood.

Rizcric
on December 31, 2012, 11:35 GMT

First 10 overs were very crucial in both innings, but the indians top class batting lineup was n't ready to get ride. Good bowling spell by youngster Junaid Khan. Well done. Wishing you all the best. regards, rizwan khattak

hhillbumper
on December 31, 2012, 11:23 GMT

good to see the mighty India getting some match practice in before England get back. What were he excuses this time? Could it actually just be that you are not a very good team? look forward to playing you again soon

bhrangi
on December 31, 2012, 11:22 GMT

@ bMike : I never said win against SL is enough.,., Hammered like School teams, What SL is doing now then?? 103 all out is that college level or what??Losing to school team to 4-1 and CB series 2-1,If you guys are lost then ur players had bad time if India Lost then we are school team??., I am not defending India,We are having a bad time after a World cup win and I accept that.,. Imagine Sanga, Mahe and Dilshan retire then all your players will coming home in stretchers. Even Ind win PAk in coming matches , I never say we are great except they beat Eng and Aussie in their den.

on December 31, 2012, 11:04 GMT

The point that needs to be understood by the Indian Management/Selectors/BCCI/Spectators is that the team is going through a transition stage , for all the people praising the Dravids/Laxman's/Ganguly's of yore , they need to remember that none of these greats had a good start to their career , it took time to establish into the folds of International cricket.We need to give the youngsters some time to settle ,Kohli/Sharma has class which is permanent , form is temporary they will regain it , Dhoni is the perfect captain who is handling a team which has lost all its balance , A batting bereft of Sachin/Sehwag(Fit & in form)/Dravid/Laxman , 7 bowling without Harbhajan/Zak (in form) is really hard to manage. The youngster are filling huge shoes , give them some time and a long rope , trust me this post will be forgotten soon , but by next year people will be praising the Kohli's , Raina's , Sharma's of the Indian teams as greats......

ALLIBHOY
on December 31, 2012, 11:00 GMT

India has proved its weakness to swing and movement. They need good pitches to prepare the team for future tours. The thought that India are good only on Indian flat and dead pitches seems to be very true. Well done Pakistan they have proved that they can take on the most difficult of odds. Their batting still needs polish and responsibility, the youngsters need to work hard so as to relieve the aging seniors of an anchor' role.

Solid_Snake
on December 31, 2012, 10:59 GMT

I bet that next match would be a very high scoring match..
Dead Flat track=A huge pile of runs..
India surely isn't that stupid to let Pak bowlers Humiliate their batsmen in front of home crowd.Anyways we are used to such kinda tracks.If Junaid could make life as hell on seaming wickets,he surely can do it again on dead track as well..
Only if get rid of this Azhar Ali..Man he isnt a ODI material.If a thick head like me could understand it,why not our selectors.Try someone else man come on Azhar Ali even surpassed Misbah in 'tuk tuk' competition..I just cannot stand watching his batting

Ali.Mirza
on December 31, 2012, 10:50 GMT

as a Pakistani fan! whenever India Looses all Indian fans are blaming only MS Dhoni but when India wins there's nobody give credit to MS Dhoni! all credit goes to Yuvraj, Kohli etc...
its not good behave from Indian fans.
as my thinking India team is nothing without MS!
he is a good captain and batsman as well. so, pls think about it.

gulzee
on December 31, 2012, 10:23 GMT

what are the regulations for being awarded as man of the match ? is it the public poll or the spectators claps..? is this a roman empire so that gladiator of public's choice be awarded..pathetic judgement, despite of some genuine good performances by winning side they awarded dhoni for man of the match..his innings was no doubt a good one but i think there are many others more deserving particularly young fast bowler Junaid khan..
And i m waiting to see a dead straight pitch ahead, killer for bowlers and stardom for indian batsman..

on December 31, 2012, 10:23 GMT

I am a Pakistani. It was not just India's day. Every host country has a legal right to prepare the pitch that suits their strength. Since India' main power lies in batting they prepared a docile pitch to score 300 plus score. But man proposes God disposes. The night and morning spell gave a lot of moisture to the main pitch making it a blowers paradise as long as the moisture did not evaporte. Second bad luck fell when India lost the toss. It gave a golden opportunity to Pakistani swingers to take maximum advantage of morning condition, and they did. All praise to Dhoni and down the order batsmen that gave Pakistan a defending total of 227. But as the day progressed and sunshire evaporated any dampness from the docile pitch it was not difficult for Pakistan to cross the 227 mark. It was as simple as that. Another worry is India is producing many world class fast bowlers but they are losing their touch too early. At least they should have gone 8 years of standard prime perio

gopivissu
on December 31, 2012, 10:19 GMT

The batlsman like Pujara can never be left in any of the formats. Because he is averaging 56 in both List A and first class with more than 50 matches. He should be given more chances before the worldcup 2015 as it is going to be played in Australia and Newzeland. He was the batsman well adjusted in west indies in the recent INDIA A series and he played as a Captain. I feel he is the future test captain for INDIA. Also a very good top order batsman for ODI's and T-20's along with Rahane. In my view Ashwin can be grown up as a genuine all rounder like Hafeeze. He can bowl 10 overs and can bat as well. The point here is he was a top order batsman for Tamilnadu U -17 team and later turned as a bowler. He played new ball well in test matches againest England. My team for WC15: 1. Rahane 2. Pujara 3. Kohli 4. Ashwin 5. Raina 6. Mandeep 7. Dhoni 8. B. Kumar 9. Yadav 10. Sandeep Sharma 11. IC Panday and 12. Ojha 13. Parthiv 14. Jeewanjyot singh 15. R. Dhawan

Mail4kar
on December 31, 2012, 10:05 GMT

India's hard fought is good, despite losing the toss. Few of them in this page written as India's batting totally surrended to pak's high quality(?) bowling. It's jus bcoz of toss. It'll be a different story if india won the toss. keep that in mind series not over yet.. For India, Pls take Rohit sharma & jadeja out of the team. They are just cementing a place by playing well in 1 or 2 matches. What the hell u r doing with manoj tiwary/ambati rayudu.. Make them play to prove themselves. I agree Ishant is a good bowler, but not a wicket taking bowler as india need. Give chance to someone who can be good for the future.

rohan34mca
on December 31, 2012, 10:04 GMT

I reckon M Dhoni among the top 3 captains, I have seen during my lifetime. He is among I Khan, Shane Warne & S Waugh. However I am not sure why he lacked the killer instinct yesterday. To see Pak manage 13 for 1 in a batting pp & then allowing easy singles when they need 55 of 10 was truly baffling. He used to out think everyone in the past. Very sad to see him being laid back. May be lack luster attitude of Mr Sehwag (Making a mockery of himself in the field), Mr Yuvraj (spilling easy take), Mr Ashwin (overstepping, in attempt to generate some pace maybe) prompted him to demonstrate "WE DON'T DESERVE TO WIN WITH THESE LIABILITIES". Pathetic performance in the field by India.

wakaPAK
on December 31, 2012, 9:57 GMT

Here's what will happen in the next match. There will be a super flat Indian pitch and Yuvraj, Kohli, Gambhir will make centuries. India might put 350+ on the scorecard and everyone will be admiring them but the truth is these pitches just hide your weaknesses and India will never be a world beater if sporting wickets like yesterday's are not produced. You want to win against Aussies and SA in away matches, you must prepare such tracks like Ahmadabad's. In India poor fast bowlers have no future; flat tracks have made their minds too defensive; they never attack on these pitches because if they do they know they are gonna go for runs; they just try defensive bowling; only thing on their mind is to miss the ball. The equation in India is so much in favor of batsmen.

cricindian123
on December 31, 2012, 9:51 GMT

It is surprise to see Rohit in team till his continuos poor performance..Why Rahane and Pujara dropped????????????

getsetgopk
on December 31, 2012, 9:35 GMT

g.narsimha: "the WINDIES& AUSSEE were dominant in 80s & 90s does it means they are relervent today" I can understand the windies but Aussies are not relevant? Last time I checked they thrashed India 4-0 at home and then man handeled your ordinary bowlers in SL Wt20 and that was just a single Aussie, Watson. If thats not relevant then im not sure what will it take to make something relevant to India fans like you. As far IND-PAK games since 2000, by all means, go on and check that record too, you wont find much comfort their either, if anything, India became slightly competitive since 2000 and are now heading back to the 80's and 90's era, and quite rapidly. 1-0 down, pressure is on IND, you just hope and pray the next pitch is another dead beat with nothing in their for anyone and it doesn't rain around the match day other wise IND will find itself staring down the barrel, yet again! Cheers and Happy New Year everyone.

Solid_Snake
on December 31, 2012, 9:31 GMT

Ohh no so Umpires helped us win the match..
Crybabies stop this nonsense.It was BCCI who is against DRS,we have no issue at regarding DRS.If you have got that much problem with the Umpires,go ask BCCI..

Btw i love the pin drop silence in the Ground..I just love that atmosphere when all fans goes silent.

Smithie
on December 31, 2012, 9:30 GMT

Howlers by Umpire Ravi have bought the Indian public to the boil over the BCCI refusal to accept DRS. See current article and negative comments in the Times of India. Will mr Srinivasan and Dhoni change their minds , use DRS and win the plaudits of the global cricket community.

Pathiyal
on December 31, 2012, 9:19 GMT

the partnership between Younus and Nasir set the game for pakistan...nice to see Younus in the middle. Nasir was giving the right impression that it was not an easy job in the middle yesterday and rightly so. except for the hindi commentary on star sports whcih was depressing to say the least, i liked everything else.

may_the_best_win
on December 31, 2012, 9:16 GMT

@vinodkd99: u missed the catch which misbah dropped off dhoni!! bro no need of crying!!

Un_Citoyen_Indien
on December 31, 2012, 9:13 GMT

Could someone please tell me what business Virender Sehwag has in this team? He doesn't score runs, doesn't bowl, isn't very fast between the wickets, can't dive and now he apparently can't even hold the simplest of catches!

And to think this man wants to be the captain of the Indian Cricket Team (and even goes to the extent of criticising the skipper during press conferences). It is ludicrous to say the least.

Sehwag can't hold a candle to M.S. Dhoni.

WickyRoy.paklover
on December 31, 2012, 9:13 GMT

@g.narishma,have ind got d 5th bowler?lolz.their 4 bowlrs r not gud enuf than what would d 5th bowlr do?CONGRATS U HAVE ANOTHR P.KUMAR IN D FORM OF B.KUMAR...OBVIOUSLY BEST OF BEST WOULD b Hit to all parts of d park given d state of indian pitches pls outfields,even steyn was thrashed in ipl by an indian ovr.hyped sloger,real competition lies on d wicket which iz equaly responsiv 4 both batrs n bowlrs.

on December 31, 2012, 9:10 GMT

glad to see that junaid khan and nasir jamshed are both 23. so they have lot of cricket left in them.

WickyRoy.paklover
on December 31, 2012, 9:01 GMT

@g.narishma,have ind got d 5th bowler?lolz.their 4 bowlrs r not gud enuf than what would d 5th bowlr do?CONGRATS U HAVE ANOTHR P.KUMAR IN D FORM OF B.KUMAR...OBVIOUSLY BEST OF BEST WOULD b Hit to all parts of d park given d state of indian pitches pls outfields,even steyn was thrashed in ipl by an indian ovr.hyped sloger,real competition lies on d wicket which iz equaly responsiv 4 both batrs n bowlrs.

on December 31, 2012, 9:01 GMT

Fabulous performence by Pakistan esp Junaid Khan. What a spell of fast swing bowling. I don't think you can blame the Indian top order much since they were facing one of the best swing bowling spells. Once the ball got old and wicket dried up a bit, batting became easy and thats why Dhoni was able to play a good knock. Excellent performence by Nasir and Younis, their partnership sealed the game for PAK. Its a shame that the MOM was given to Dhoni whereas young Junaid deserved it more than anyone else!

ICCexpert....
on December 31, 2012, 9:00 GMT

Where is Shastri? Where is Sunil Gavaskar and the tens and thousands of those Indians who used to say "India will beat Pakistan no matter where they play". Just because we didn't see the Indians in a full series for more than five years and that the Indians won a match here and match there every one or two years doesn't make India a better team than Pakistan. check out your past history of over sixty years of cricket and you will know that it has been Pakistan beating India most of the times. The reason why Sunil Gavaskar was against this tour is perhaps he didn't want the world to see Indian batsmen's horrendous technique against quality bowling like Pakistan, which he so eloquently described while doing commentary. We all know now how talented the so called 'worlds best batting lineup'. Couldn't deal with two young left arm fast bowlers in their backyard. Enough said!

ReverseSweepIndia
on December 31, 2012, 8:49 GMT

Well played Pak. Brilliant from Junaid, Jamshed and Dhoni. Younis also showed his class. We really need to get our acts together. I think, I will not mind losing this series to Pak because they had been a better team on the show on all 3 matches except that Yuvi masterclass in 2nd T20. Bar another solo either from Yuvi or Virat I dont see us winning which can do more good than bad here. Hussey just retired. And if smart brains in BCCI has some right senses, I think they have ideal man to look out for to replace Fletcher.

on December 31, 2012, 8:43 GMT

India Vs Pakistan ODI's Head 2 Head Result: Pakistan Won 70 and India Won 48 total matches played 122 between 1978-2012 reference http://stats.espncricinfo.com/india-v-pakistan-2012/engine/records/team/results_summary.html?class=2;id=6;id=7;type=headtohead .......... India Vs Pakistan Tests Head 2 Head Result: Pakistan Won 12 and India Won 9 total matches played 59 between 1952-2012 reference http://stats.espncricinfo.com/india-v-pakistan-2012/engine/records/team/results_summary.html?class=1;id=6;id=7;type=headtohead

VivtheGreatest
on December 31, 2012, 8:42 GMT

Good display of fast, swing bowling by Junaid Khan but a really woeful display by India's top order. Its a bitter fact but our batsman have zero technique when there is even a little bit help for the bowlers in the pitch. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can plunder mediocre bowlers on flat pitches but the real value of Sachin or Dravid is missed when ur up against quality bowling in even slightly difficult conditions. Sorry to say but our present batting line-up comprises only flat-pitch bullies.

on December 31, 2012, 8:29 GMT

I have some advice to the Indian Selectors and MS Dhoni on team selection....

- Bring in Ajinkya Rahane in place of Gautam Gambhir
- Bring in Cheteshwar Pujara in place of Rohit Sharma.
- Play an extra bowler while the hunt for allrounder continues.Otherwise give a chance to all-rounders who bowl medium fast like Rajat Bhatia/Abhishek Nayar or even a Manoj Pujary who can bowl spin.

As far as Sehwag is concerned, he can still be picked as if he goes going then he can make a difference. However if he is out, to avoid the team falling like nine pins we need Rahane and Pujara who can bring solidarity to the team. We don't need the flamboyance of Rohit as we already have Virat, Yuvraj and Raina who can provide flamboyance.

baranasai
on December 31, 2012, 8:29 GMT

It is high time Indian team bring in some new players boldly and give them a chance as some some new tendulkars Dravids might be waiting some whree .Shewag has a lean period and same Rohit shrma and Ghambir /atleast two of them should be rested for some time and bring in Rahane Tiwary Badrinath .It is time Shewag is given a warning -unless he delivers he should not be in the team .Rohit has become more of a libilty -he cant step into a middle order slot which wasonce upon atime occupied by players like Dravid SRT etc/It is time we bring in Badri he will be amore responsible player /Rohit Jadeja had more chnaces like Mural vijai.in fact I can take even Murali vijai than these two wasteful players Rohit and Jadeja

vinodkd99
on December 31, 2012, 8:19 GMT

So many comments about inability of Indian batsmen to play in seaming conditions, Pakistan being a better team than Indian team, lack of penetration of Indian bowlers and so on.
But the fact about the 1st ODI remains that:
1. India lost the Toss. 25% of the match was lost then and there.
2. Had to be content with Yuvraj dropping a sitter.
3. Sehwag and Ishant not even attempting relatively easier catches
4. Shoaib's catch to Dhoni being off a No Ball
5. 2 umpiring errors : Jamshed's Catch and Younis's LBW

It was really such a day for Indian team.

on December 31, 2012, 8:14 GMT

India Scored 227 Runs from 119 Balls...as there are 181 Dot balls....impressive...i think this ODI must be called as T20I....;-)

on December 31, 2012, 8:11 GMT

Junaid, Jamshed set up Pakistan Win, but guess who wins the Man of the Match. I think Ashwin and Misbah should also get Man of the Match. Because without both of them he would'nt have gone so far.

seenurag
on December 31, 2012, 8:10 GMT

India needs a coach like Gary Kirstein.

Anwar-Lara
on December 31, 2012, 8:10 GMT

Now if Batsmen only score on flat tracks and in batting friendly conditions ,should they still be referred as "world class" ????

jimmi73
on December 31, 2012, 7:59 GMT

There is no need to blame India batting line up ,actually in every match there are 20 wicket taking ball ,10 for each team , unfortunetly or luckely 5 wicket taking ball bowlled by pakistanies in between 1-10 over against India top orders batting and that was enough.
Secondly Jamshed & Yonus khan knew that first 15 over is crucial and they hold their wickets. that was the key of Pak victory .

SherjilIslam
on December 31, 2012, 7:58 GMT

@HemanthT20...You are absolutely correct. Dhoni's field placings were horrible.Even in the tests....it was his poor field placing that cost India the series.I don't know what this so called FAT SALARIED coach of Indian team is doing.Where are the plans and their execution???We even don't have plan A..forget about it's failure to implement plan B.
I seriously think India should get rid of Duncan Fletcher immediately and romp Ganguly. Saurav is much better in terms of making plans and strategies against particular teams/individual players.And also his aggressive nature of dealing things is the need of the hour.

Solid_Snake
on December 31, 2012, 7:50 GMT

@g.narsimha->I see you always say this thing ie 'We all know how those matches in Sharjah were played'
Care to explain what exactly it means?'
Dont tell me all those matches were fixed lol
& btw what did Junaid do yesterday?His ball was not swinging at all.He kept on bowling with dead precision & got those wickets.But no..You guys just forget his effort & throw everthing at the weather lol..
While Kumar was bowling,surely sun was out but still at that time still pitch was favorable.The first few overs of both Kumar & Junaid were the same with New Ball.So dont just say that both the teams played on totally different pitches.
PS->I guess you forgot the new ODI rules in death overs.Beating any bowler is no big thing.Even Dhoni had no idea where the ball was going.Kept on hitting blindly at one direction & the ball was going somewhere else.
Credit goes to Dhoni & ICC both..I could say that but i wont..Still Respect for Dhoni from my side

faizan_feroz
on December 31, 2012, 7:48 GMT

@kash 26 and all others blaming the umpires ! it was and it is still india who is agianst decision referral system as it tends to moralize the umpires (Acc to bcci ) so dont make an argument here ! live with it ! referrals were made to take bad decisions out of the game , nw if they r not then leave it to the umpireS !

SherjilIslam
on December 31, 2012, 7:46 GMT

The most interesting fact about Indian bowling that played on Sunday......Top wicket takers Yuvraj and Sehwag with 104 and 94 wickets respectively.With that much inexperienced in bowling, it was bound to happen.Also the kind of experience Pakistan have in their middle order eventually saw them through in the tricky situation.
Where are the Sachin Bashers????What your so called youth brigade did when they got chance to show their worth?
I have seriously lost all hopes for Rohit Sharma....although i am a fan of him, but the number of chances he has got to show his prowess, i seriously bet no other would have got in the history of Indian cricket.Instead of him Rahane/Shami Ahmad could have played.I( still hope India can turnaround this series....provided some better sense prevailing in the Indian think tank.

WickyRoy.paklover
on December 31, 2012, 7:37 GMT

Problem iz not wd dhoni but wid their bowling,they have not a singl bowlr who can test the batsmen,sharmas,dindas R 2nd string at d most,by d same token ind iz not safe even on world's flattest tracks,bcoz no mater how heavily their batsmen score,the other team wil always fancy their chances against ind......FOR Pak team,i wish misbha must cal it a day n concentrate on tests along wid his successor Azhar.BELIEVE ME WE HAVE SO MANY YOUNG TALNTD BATSMEN WAITING IN D WING THAT WE CAN EASILY FIL THAT GAP,I 'm a huge umar akmal fan bt he should work on his mental makeup,if he can do that he would b batsmen 4 next 10 years atleast 4 pak@getsetgopk,junaid haven't used variations at d death ovrs yet,lets see what iz he upto?

on December 31, 2012, 7:37 GMT

the sort of criticism dhoni is facing after the chennai defeat is a little hard to fathom.india has to first accept the fact that their bowling attack is probably the most innocuous in cricket presently.that being the case,what possible good can come from fielding a regular 5th bowler by leaving out a batsman when he's not going to be a genuine wicket taker?from Pakistan's viewpoint,the only indian spinner they are circumspect when playing him is ashwin.and he too went wicketless.Pakistan understands that their batting line isnt as strong as India's so them playing 8 batsmen and relying on even 4 bowlers upfront is understandable.india's problem is not a 5th bowler.their problem is a quality 5th bowler.so if dhoni had included a 5th specialist bowler by leaving out one of the batsmen,india's chances of getting to a respectable total would have slimmed down further.this wont go down well with the indian fans but the cardinal reason behind india's ineptitude with the ball is IPL.

on December 31, 2012, 7:35 GMT

this is a very good win for pakistan and i wish to wins all of matches...

Taha_Farrukh
on December 31, 2012, 7:32 GMT

No doubt MS is overrated Captain he is nothing with out Drivid , Luxman, SG, Zaheer khan..... his tassel with Sehwag & Guhtam looks india in deep deep trouble and very soon team india will be in low rank teams even below from BD.....

on December 31, 2012, 7:32 GMT

It's pretty shameful/discouraging to award Dhoni man of the match while there were two clear contenders Junaid and Jamshed who led the Pakistani side to win the game. No doubt dhoni saves the falling indian side but it was Junaid khan who should be praised for his brilliant swing spell which led indian batting side shattered. Jamshed on the other side played a marathon inning alongs with Younis khan and Shaoib Malik, kept his nerves calm all the time and we get to witness some classic batting strokes from the likes of Saeed Anwar, lara in this modern era. Disappointed and gutted with this biased decision!!

Ali.Mirza
on December 31, 2012, 7:32 GMT

Every Indian fan is blaming umpires for their poor performance? i totaly agree but remember that only India is against DRS!
if you not agree with umpire then why you not supporting DRS?
Now you have to think!

safiullah.asifi
on December 31, 2012, 7:25 GMT

What I really would like to add here that the poor umpiring and poor batting cost India losing the match.

ashqarmahi
on December 31, 2012, 7:25 GMT

throw shehwag out...he is no better for the team now....rahane is better choice than shehwag.....and please don't push dhoni for his captaincy....

kash26
on December 31, 2012, 7:22 GMT

Jamshed was clearly out caught behind yet the umpire gave him not out.Why dont the umpires use camera technology before giving their decisions?One wrong decision changes the entire complexion of the match in the wrong direction.

hasansmylz
on December 31, 2012, 7:12 GMT

@ Thyagu5432 ... I am a Pakistani Fan n yes for sure I am enjoying the moment, but to set your records straight, let me tell me you Pakistan have won more matches (ODIs, Tests & T-20s) against India .....
the Artical by Kanishkaa Balachandran seems a bit tilted towards India, All details and praises for MS Dhoni (who, no doubt played an outstanding innings) but you need to give credit to Nasir, Junaid & Younus as well ... :)

g.narsimha
on December 31, 2012, 7:04 GMT

GETSETGOPAK-U r still living on past history,the WINDIES& AUSSEE were dominant in 80s & 90s does it means they are relervent today,once apounatime u r team used to beat IND in SHARJAAH IN 80S &FEW IN IND WE ALL KNOW how those matches were played,u always come up with the idea of INDIA,should play with minnows thier test status should be taken blahh-we won 2nd t-20 u were not to be seen later,we accept u r team deserved the win but so many factors cotributed-toss, weather ,some saying that the weather remined same through out the day ,laughable weather affects in the first i hour,later wicket comes to its normall nature u r JUNAID utillised it ,u people start making tall claims,junaid did that this blahh,same things were said about IRFAAN after one off heroics where is he? was thrashed to all corners in both the matches KUMAR took 3 wickets in T-t20 u people never ackwolegde him,in this match also he was more effective,be prepared for seeing the same fate of JUNAID as happened 2 IRFAN

HemnathT20
on December 31, 2012, 7:01 GMT

Dhoni pushed score to 227 runs with his batting, and then Dhoni gifted this victory to Pakistan with his field settings. Field setting is totally horrible from 11th over to 35th over (Any ODI's under his captaincy). No matter whatever the score is to defend (either 227 or 427), he shifts to defensive mode in field settings immediately after Powerplay overs. Y'strday we all know (including Dhoni) that Pakistan batsmen never felt pressure while batting after 10th over because of spreaded fielders, and 1s,2s avlble all around the ground. Why not Dhoni be attacking always by putting as much as his fielders inside the inner-circle? This is what Dhoni needs to learn from other top-class teams like Aus, SA, and Eng etc. They have world-class bowlers only because of their team captains who were helping them to get wickets by placing attacking field settings. As an indian crkt fan i am not hapy with Dhoni's field settings in non-powerplay overs particularly when there is not much runs to defend

on December 31, 2012, 7:01 GMT

""Thereafter, the initiative slipped from India due to a combination of bad luck and poor fielding."" If you call droping catches as BAD LUCK then Its also the luck due to which DHONI completed the century otherwise MISBAH Should have caught it.

Initiative slipped only because of YOUNIS and JAMSHED's watchful batting in the seaming conditions contrast to that of Indian So CALLED TOP and middle order's shaky batting.

Everyone on T.V and elsewhere says Indian Batting Indian batting then there you go this Indian Strong batting who are the on the mercy of seaming conditions. 5 Top orders have no idea how to play Seaming balls...

on December 31, 2012, 6:55 GMT

Just when I tht their wouldnt be another Muhammad Aamir, along comes Junaid. And yet to be witnessed is Anwar Ali .. if the conditions are as favorbale for swing as were in Chennai, people would get to see swing bowling lifted to a whole new level.

FARHAN-SB
on December 31, 2012, 6:48 GMT

I am a Pakistani and praise the good Cricket by Team Pakistan but Dhoni given India, an outside chance. He knocks a superb century to raise the total to 227/6, with good performance of Kumar early on with the swing balling but it was not enough in the end!
Junaid Khan bowled a good seam and swing bowling but Umar Gul & Saeed Ajmal did not perform up to the standards. If they performed, I think total should be around 130 mark~!
Dhoni is also missing a trick without no. 5th bowler, like playing another spinner maybe Chawala and replacing Ishant Sharma with Umesh Yadav ….. He can omit one batsman i.e. Rohit Sharma!!!

In the end, best of Luck to Team Pakistan in coming ODI (Kolkota) and wish to have a competitive cricket from both side ….

CricketFirstLove
on December 31, 2012, 6:41 GMT

That is why I am such a big fan of Dhoni. He assumes responsibility pulls himself up and do whatever he could. Despite the fall the way he brought back India is remarkable. But the team around him is falling apart. At the least Sehwag should be dropped right away if India is to redeem this series. The best part in the India - Pak series there is not a dull moment. We are seeing some top class cricket which is very good for young boys watching them play. And it is competitive cricket, not watching someone playing for records and in the end team losing. Like Azharuddin I find Dhoni never ever playing for records but the team. I recall only three captains with that ability: Tiger Pataudi, Azharuddin and M.S.Dhoni. The last one is an amazing find. All the talk of replacing him is nothing but jealousy. If the batting is the kind we have and the bowling the kind he has and the fielding sometimes amysmal what can the captain and coach do.

on December 31, 2012, 6:14 GMT

@jama.. now india can't compete with Bangladesh..its proved in last few competition..BD beat india

Htc-Android
on December 31, 2012, 6:13 GMT

@Solid_Snake. Agree with u mate.These indian fans dont praise their opponents performance and always come up with excuses and they give lectures about sportsmanship to other fans.

Sheikasif
on December 31, 2012, 6:12 GMT

well played Dhoni...A brae captains run. Throw shewag and Ghambiar out of team India for better results

Thyagu5432
on December 31, 2012, 6:10 GMT

I think Pakistani fans are having a field day. They cannot be blamed, they have been waiting for ages for something like this to happen. As far as India is concerned, I think this is a phase where they will taste more defeats than success. After all the exits of legends starting from Dada to Kumble to Dravid to VVS and now Sachin cannot be made up overnight. It is a phase where we need to find new players, try them out and then figure out the best combination that might work. It is a slow and painful process and I am sure we will find the right combination sooner than later. Until then Pak fans can have fun.

Man_from_Mountains
on December 31, 2012, 6:10 GMT

India must play Pujara 1st down as he is the guy who can play through the whole innings and others around him. MSD must come up the order and Rohit must be dropped for his consistent failure. India must play a full time 5th bowler as R. Aswin looks like a genuin alrounder.

on December 31, 2012, 6:10 GMT

I personally feel that Dhoni in yesteryears was lucky to have players like Dravid, Luxman,Tandulkar, Yuvraj, Zaheer and Harbajan under his captaincy. He is over rated captain and proved that he can mess up the things by his questionable style of captaincy, even with class players like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina,B Kumar and Virat Kohli. He can continue as a WK Batsman in the team but not as captain.

Arif2012
on December 31, 2012, 6:06 GMT

Shouldn't the statistics for No / Wide balls be like this:
India 1/3
Pakistan 2/9

Because the other statistics are what the teams did. So to me the no/wide ball should be like this.

Adoh
on December 31, 2012, 6:05 GMT

I just love the insultingly biased and remarkably unintelligent commentary by the Indian TV presenters. Not since Max Walker has there ever been such extertainment.

Sagitarius1
on December 31, 2012, 6:00 GMT

Toss has always been Dhoni's excuse. Well done Pakis. All is well that ends well

soumyas
on December 31, 2012, 5:57 GMT

@cric_kumar, u made a nice point, we can't blame Tendulkar now.

on December 31, 2012, 5:53 GMT

Dhoni's catch dropped, a run out chance missed, scored a century
Jamsheeds catch was dropped, misjudged the appeal, scored a century

Apart from these two innings, two impact innings were from Junaid and Younis, the better team won. Cheers!

on December 31, 2012, 5:52 GMT

Congratulations team Pakistan for winning the first ODI. I think the man of the match should have been Junaid Khan. It was his bowling that created the whole scenario...Pakistan winning and also Dhoni playing the way he did.

What i did not understand is why we never saw Captain Misbahul Haq talking to his bowlers, like Mohammad Irfan. He kept bowling short balls at Dhoni towards the end of his spell and gave so many runs. Not once did we see Misbah come up to him or ask him to bowl yorkers. Misbah did not even talk to Nasir jamshed while both were batting and Jamshed was getting carried away and batting dangerously.

bMike
on December 31, 2012, 5:52 GMT

@:bhrangi: SL batsmen are also not at their best. SL lost home ODI series with India but you know their best ODI bowler Kulasekara & best batsman informed at the time Sangakkara didn't play more than half of that tournament. Anyway if India's only desire is to beat SL and get thrashed from all the other teams(even at home) in a way that nobody got thrashed, if it's more than enough for your team to only beat SL and get hammered like a school team from all the other teams all over the world why do you come and comment here about India vs Pakistan matches?. Even if you don't care we don't want to see one of our brothers getting that much humiliation in front of whole world.

AmjadZork
on December 31, 2012, 5:48 GMT

Congratulations to Green shirts !!!!!!!

fahimuddin1
on December 31, 2012, 5:47 GMT

Pakistani and Indian batsmen with some exceptions have always been vulnerable against the outgoing ball and these players are no exception.Dont not feel Irfan is a great long term prospect -Wahab Riaz is better .Shoaib Malik s batting technique generally is poor and particularly against fast bowling.It is a waste of time trying to invest in him . India should pay another specialist bowler

Solid_Snake
on December 31, 2012, 5:41 GMT

Cant stop laughing when People say that it was the toss due to which Pakistan won.Batting was easy later on bla bla bla..Never appreciate the efforts of Pak batsmen.Salute to this mentality.
Lol come on..It was your home,Your Ground,Your Pitch,Your call.You set up the whole thing & now blaming the toss as if we had something to do with the pitch.Keep dreaming & coming up with more excuses :P
we still won

on December 31, 2012, 5:38 GMT

The critics are voluble and don't lack words of abuse bordering on slander. In spite of World Cup triumph, India has always lagged behind Pakistan in ODI's. This is in spite of our Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag et al. In this match at Chennai, as in a previous Test Match against England, Dhoni showed his class and I am proud of his performance. His innings is historic and is an object lesson to others as to how to fare in a match when things go very badly against you. 199 runs added to the score of 29/5 with two partners! That is stupendous!

on December 31, 2012, 5:32 GMT

Adding comments just to please Mr.Shez Khan.Well played Pakistan.Excellent exhibition of seam and swing bowling.Come on India ,fight Hard.We can still beat them.As Mr.Khan said Pak is a quality team and beating them will be a double delight.

BehzadMustafa
on December 31, 2012, 5:28 GMT

Asslam-o-Aliakum!
Both Teams Need to improve quite a bit:
INDIA(1. Needs to get a guy like Dravid in their Top Order.
2. Needs to have a Fast-Bowler, who can bat a bit as well.
3. They can easily score 300+ in India, but they need to be prepared for England and Australian Pitches.(Where they'll play some big tournaments in next few years).
PAKISTAN(1. Needs a Pinch Hitter(or two) for latter stages of high scoring games.
2. Needs to rely their batting, more on boundries.
3. Needs to have a fully fit team.)

cric_kumar
on December 31, 2012, 5:25 GMT

what to do now Sachin has retired now we cannot blame him for the loss so sad guys.....

on December 31, 2012, 5:15 GMT

I am Happy with the performance of 'Team Dhoni'.. Now-a-days, neither dhoni nor team performed but yesterday at-least dhoni performed. Difference between 2 teams was part timers.. Pakistan conceded 35 runs in 14 overs with Raina's wicket whereas India conceded 77 runs in 10 overs with no wicket... Dhoni should play with onether spinner replacing rohit sharma...

Naikan
on December 31, 2012, 5:12 GMT

I do feel that Dhoni takes all setbacks well in stride. Losing no.1 status, and losing several series away and now so many losses at home. I do not feel he is responsible for them. In a way I hope that these losses make him realize the tremendous value that the fab 4 batting (Dravid, VVSL, SRT, Ganguly) brought to the Indian team while they were around. He will then appreciate the level of talent he needs to bring back the team to winning ways. Sadly, even if Sehwag and Gambhir recover some degree of form, I do not see them as being part of that, as they too are coming close to their career ends - atleast the shorter verison.

venubangalore
on December 31, 2012, 5:11 GMT

its was toss played crucial part. because morning playing bowling was very if pakistan had batted first they could have bowled out 120 runns. batting after noon very comfortable ball coming to bat very nicely.
so we cannot paki is better side

on December 31, 2012, 5:10 GMT

Nasir Jamshed played a composed, yet chancy century (WHAT about Dhoni Century. is it not chancy ? Mr. reporter (Correction) Plz :)

on December 31, 2012, 5:03 GMT

No doubt it is a victory to Pakistan.. but for some reason Dhoni's performance stood out the most! It was exciting, full of patience and most importantly was the most runs scored by any batsmen in the match.. I liked how Juniad bowled! And Bhuveneshwar's bowling was outstanding!!! First ball..Gonna be a fine cricketer

indiasupbangalore
on December 31, 2012, 5:01 GMT

I am so glad india lost, every now and then when the sword is swinging over showni's head he comes out with a good performance,but in th end it did not matter india lost. One thing I liked about yesterday game was it is ok to loose but fight, showni and raina fought well did'nt they. It was unfair to give the man of match to showni, who else than junaid deserved it. Irfan looks lika ferrari with no brakes, he might be another tino best if that is the case. Glad that shewag and gomba got out with a low score another nail in the coffin on their one day career. Only regret was the way kholi,rohit,yuvi got out, was looking for much better performance from them since they are the core people taking india to 2015 world cup. Overall the first 15 min changed the fortune of the game, for a while in first innings I thought I was watching a test game, it would been so nice to indeed watch a test match between ind vs pak than these meaningless odi.

BobCo
on December 31, 2012, 4:56 GMT

how can a guy who cleans up 4 top order batsman and reduces India to 5 for 29 not get MOM? outrageous!!

ifrakurshid
on December 31, 2012, 4:55 GMT

Congratulations to PAK for its first win OF THE SERIES IN INDIA A NICE SHOW OF SEAM BOWLING VERY WEL SUPPORTED BY WEATHER & THE PITCH A VITAL TOSS TO WIN WHERE IT WAS CONSIDERED THAT 25% WIN WAS REGISTERED ON WINNING THE TOSS. Omar akmal not getting the chance to play is a bit harsh. if one compare him with misbah as of today younger better fielder better suited to the 50 overs matches leadership role can be given to yonus/shoaib/hafeez its up to pak management sign of going down by misbah is noted both in batting, fielding and its the age which is knocking on him. similarly for india dhoni or the team india can not win if the leader is playing double now he wants a 5th bowler where he him self was ignoring the 5th bowler over part timer. he is cruching kholi by exposing him to bowl canot keep happy players by giving one or 2 overs to bowl his croockedness is not working the earlier he leaves leadership in shorter version the bette 4 india. compare his 100 with nasir age factor seen.

on December 31, 2012, 4:44 GMT

full credit to Pakistan , Younis was the key though in that sucessful chase . Dhoni's knock was brilliant but always very difficullt after 29/5 . Again same old questions for India if there is movement the batting just fails no technique at all , seems to be no input for improvement from the coach , hope dravid becomes the batting coach . Also dhoni's persistance to bowl kohli is very hard to understand . All the best to both teams for remaining matches .

on December 31, 2012, 4:40 GMT

I don't see many Indian commenting today for some odd reason - come on guys have some sportsmen spirit ;)

The next pitch will be FLAT for sure because that is the only pitch Indian batsmen can play on. If you even leave a little bit of grass and make things even between boll and bat, India will loose against quality bowling line up like Pak 8 out of 10 times.

Thanks

Jama
on December 31, 2012, 4:34 GMT

I am an Indian but Pakistan is by far a much better team, i am tired of watching Indians repeating their mistakes, but after this last showing, i am convinced that India can only compete with Bangladesh, Yuvi, Gambhir and Rohit are useless against quality pace bowling. They are a liability...........

karam11
on December 31, 2012, 4:33 GMT

Again Toss Played a Crucial role in the result of the match, I agree Pakistan bowling attack is better than India But that doesn't mean they can win the series, the result would have been different if they the lost the toss and batted first, anyway i dont want to take the credit from Pakistan, a Win is a Win no matter what, India is struggling without proper front line bowlers and Openers on the other hand letting the team down, with the kinda experience they have got they should have played lot more better on these conditions :)

Selfishkar
on December 31, 2012, 4:33 GMT

It was a great performance today two future Indian captains Kholi and Ghambir. There combined nearly scored as much as one tenth of outgoing captain Dhoni.

loneusman
on December 31, 2012, 4:29 GMT

Being a pakistani, all I have to say is that there is much work to be done by our side- Jamshed's inning was sloppy, azar's filled with stupidity.There was no variation during the last 10 overs resulting in costly runs. We were lucky to win, Jamshed was caught in slip but not given out, younis's ibw was not given and shoaib, well he was lucky too.. After Junaid's superab's spell, match was our to lose and we barely made it.

on December 31, 2012, 4:26 GMT

this is what happens when the ball was swinging but the most technically valued player is not in 11,time for sehwag to retire the ball he was out he is beaten previous 3 deliveries and still gone for back foot cover drive that implies bat no way near ball. a player of 212 odis experience never play shot like that expect sehwag plzzzzzzzz dont say thats how he plays.

jango_moh
on December 31, 2012, 4:21 GMT

pakistan deserved to win the match... great bowling from the seamers.... i guess our total was not enough.... @Edmund Zimmatore ... i completely agree with you, that was imo the best batting lineup, cant really remember any batting lineup that was consistently good... it led to india's resurgence outside the subcontinent!!!

on December 31, 2012, 3:53 GMT

@getsetgopk I see u all over the place now that pakistan have won a game. Be waiting for my comments when our batting line up shows its worth in the next game. n dont worry, even if we lose ill show some compassion n be here. Just cuz ya'll had a better day dusn make u the better team, check out the rankings, the records n wtevr else u want. Pak has quality bowling, thts y our top order struggled, n i admit it. But India has a far far better batting lineup than u, n i dont care what you think.

Shouldas-Wouldas-Couldas
on December 31, 2012, 3:34 GMT

LIFE AFTER TENDULKAR & DRAVID ?!
Devastating spell of accurate swing bowling by Pakistani duo virtually settled the issue in first 10 overs. Dhoni's heroics were in vain as all round Pakistan dominated India ( World Champs????) . Indian batsmen were all at sea against Junaid Khan and Mohd. Irfan (albeit in bowler friendly conditions ). Junaid Khan ripped through the top order as the Indian batmen yet again failed against quality swing/seam bowling.
Indian think-tanks (selectors/coach/captain etc) have serious questions to answer. Make no mistake, India need to play FIVE SPECIALIST BOWLERS.
"Sir Andy Zaltzman" was spot on (December 25):
@AndyZaltzmannsHair "Junaid Khan can barely make the squads these days. Look at his eyes, he's got a mean streak in them, exactly what a fast bowler needs."
Business as usual - DEMOLITION in progress ! Go Paki Go, ya beat. ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH, Do it AGAIN ya beat !!!!!!!!!

on December 31, 2012, 3:33 GMT

@Happy_AusBang I did not feel it baffled when I heard the name of MSD as MoM, if you look at the innings, it was a gem of innings, I'm sure it's one of the best innings you can ever see, one of the greatest innings of all time and there is no harm to recognize that with a MoM. I agree, Jamshed has played a good innings, but you must also understand that the pitch changed its behavior when Pak batted and the condition was seeming when Junaid Bowled, in these adverse condition Dhoni came up with a blinder. Now don't say that I'm an Indian and it is because loyalty I'm saying this. I would have had same feeling towards a Pak if they had played such an inning. :)

on December 31, 2012, 3:18 GMT

Dhoni played a good innings,but i m not agree that he is doing well for india in ODIs.If he is really a good player he should come at No.4-5.Pitch was difficult for first 8-10 overs, if pitch was difficult even after that or for all the day then how pakistani played so comfortably.

bhrangi
on December 31, 2012, 3:13 GMT

@bMike : I think you don't understand what I am saying ,.,.We accept our batsmen not in form , I used to be a fan of Sri Lankan cricket because of Sanga and Mahe but your fans hatred towards India turned me., As i said We were very bad in CB series but still we played well against SL , we were very bad in Asian but still we won against SL. Recently we won 4-1 in SL. If you claimed as Eng and Aussie fan, I could have accepted your advise. you are great human being yeah when your house is on big fire you are pouring water to us. Thanks and Happy New Year.

Salmans_A_Qureshi
on December 31, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Sorry to say, but Dhon's man of the match decision was certainly biased. Match turning point was Junaid's wickets and he truely deserved man of the match award.

on December 31, 2012, 2:59 GMT

The toss played an important role on a bowler friendly wicket, had it been Pakistan playing first I'm pretty sure would have been bowled out before reaching 3 figures. The hype created around Asif is just like a bubble, Junaid bowled fairly good but mostly with the help of the green pitch. Getsetgopk is absolutely wrong in saying Pakistan had always been a better team compared to India, this "Ostrich" kind of approach from most Pakistanis turn them blind to see the truth. And the truth is Pakistani could only produce few good bowlers like Imran, Akram and Waqar, rest of them were all garbage, and never produced any quality batsmen....scoring here and there few centuries, riding on luck are not the qualities of a good player, like we saw Jamshed in 1st ODI.....you really don't call that even an average batting....at the end of it, be a sport and learn to respect the game and you will start respecting players regardless of the country they belong to.

itsthewayuplay
on December 31, 2012, 2:57 GMT

It's simply incredible how Pakistan continuously unearth such talented pace bowlers. It's quite possible that if there was less politics and their players were better paid, Pakistan would be the team to beat in both tests and ODIs. Sehwag, Gambhir and Yuvraj weakness against pace was proven yet again whilst it's disappointing to see Kohli and Sharma play completely the wrong shot to good deliveries. Time's up for these 3 except for Yuvraj in T20s. Time will tell if it was poor shot selection or a problem against pace. Dhoni's is the only recognised Indian batsman who is comfortable against short pitched stuff whilst 2 other others who are known for their bowling, Ashwin and Mishra, are not intimated by it. India can expect a lot more of chin music in the short-term from England and Australia, in the mid-term it's not worth thinking about what happens in SA and in long-term when they go overseas. The only ray of sushine was Kumar.

It is a joke to award Man of match award to a batsman who was totally slow in first half of his inning. The batsman who was lucky to score a century after a pathetic drop by Misbah Ul Haq. The batsman who actually cost India the match. It simply makes no sense to me at all. Man of the match should be for a most significant conribution to the match and for me that was clearly Junaid. He bowled with venom and destroyed Indian batting line up like a house or cards. Indeed conditions were helpful but Indian bowleres had same/similar conditions since sun never rose in Chennai. Whoever was deciding man of the match award has made a laughing stock of themselves. Atleast Indian umpires have improved but there are few things that never change. I also realise that Dhoni's captaincy was not part of his man of match award but actually his captaincy won match for Pakistan.I mean why would you be picking a team with no fifth bowler when you do not have all rounders?Dhoni can have MOM and Pak a'win'!

on December 31, 2012, 2:05 GMT

i said it before and i will say it again... India have some serious problems with their cricket.. soon they will become a walk in the park for other team. we are already seeing signs of it.

on December 31, 2012, 2:02 GMT

pakistan still needs depth in thier batting ,,after kamran akmal , i dont see an all rounder.. where india has Ashwin and B. Kumar in lower order who can bat better than saeed ajmal, gul , junaid and irfan

KiwiRocker-
on December 31, 2012, 1:59 GMT

I will like to make a mention of two things that not many are commenting on. I will like to make a special mention of how good the umpiring has been in this series even when Indian umpires were under pressure. Indian umpire's call for non ball in first T20 was an excellent example. In first ODI, again an Indian umpire made an excellent call when Ashwin bowled a no ball. Shoib Malik was batsman again! ( He seems to have all the luck...or it is because of something else?). Indian umpiring has been very poor in past and it was so bad that it had prompted likes of Imran Khan to lead way for neutral umpires. S.Ravi and other current Indian umpires look like very good and fair! Seconldly, I will like to mention Chennai crowd. Pakistan has always enjoyed great support in South India and in Chennai. That stand up cheer in Madras in 1999 was wonderful. I hope Indian crowd on other venues such as Ahmabad, Delhi etc also learns that. Especially in Mumbai where Pak is never allowed to play!

KiwiRocker-
on December 31, 2012, 1:55 GMT

Everyone now is commenting that Junaid Khan is amazing talent while I kept saying this in my previous comments that Junaid Khan should have played instead of Sohail Tanvir who in my opinion is pretty average bowler. Moving forward, Dhoni's was far too defensive in early part of his inning as well as in his captaincy. On reflection, his innings actually lost India the match. Misbah's ul Haq's drop was criminal.It has to be one of the easiest drop catches and allowed India to score above 100. I also do not understand why Indian selectors are so toothless.Why will you play Sehwag who is clealry finished while Rahana was top Indian batsman in T20 series?Why would you play players on their reputation? Look at Pak selectors who atleast showed courage to drop Afridi as well as dropped Umer Gul.Moving forward,Indian selectors need to wake up. India's loss in this ODI and most likely in this series goes back to the damage that non performer tendulya has inflicated with years of worthless runs!

on December 31, 2012, 1:49 GMT

I completely DISAGREE with the MoM.
Nasir batting performance was better chasing against India is NOT easy task. Junaid was another contender.

Another Not Out for Dhoni to raise his average. Why doesn't he play up the order every match if he averages 50+ ?

on December 31, 2012, 1:48 GMT

When two teams are fairly evenly matched, with a few good players (surrounded by a lot of average ones), matches will always be exciting. We should not let that fool us. In the current Indo-Pak series, it only shows that Pak is "as good or as bad" as India. If the excitement lulls both teams and their handlers to sleep over the glaring deficiencies, they will just be fooling themselves. Euphoria is good for a temporary fix; but not a panacea for chronic ailments.

KiwiRocker-
on December 31, 2012, 1:47 GMT

Agreed with GetSetGoPk(Laughing): It is time that ICC intervene and ends this flop show. India's test status as well as cricket playing nation status has to be reviewed. It might be an oppertunity for India to play against 'A" teams from other countries.HappyAusBang: Please learn a thing or two about game of cricket before commenting. Man of the match award is given to the player who actually performs a the most significant act in a match. While Dhoni's lucky century ( Thanks to pathetic drop by Misbah) deserves a praise, his contribution did not win India the match. Actually, if you look carrefully, India had lost this match with in first 10 overs. Rest of the match was just a prolonged agony for India. India's great masters and bashers were reduced to sitting ducks against a young fast bowler. Junaid Khan should have played in T20 instead of Tanvir. I have all along said that. Jameshed played a fine inning but for me biggest contribution to Pak's win was Junaid Khan and Younis Khan!

realfan
on December 31, 2012, 1:46 GMT

somebody tell sehwag not to open. he is no longer sharp, and he has no reflexes for swing and pace( atleast for his hand eye co ordination) RAHANE is the right man for indian opening r8 now, and sehwag may come in the middle order ( it will be helpful, especially with the new ODI rules)......

and

enough of RO(NO)HIT sharma pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease....... he is not international level.......

and

r8 time to bring in shami ahmed and have a try with him, v need 5 regular bowlers at this situation,

on December 31, 2012, 1:45 GMT

Jamshed knew he had edged the ball and was caught behind, as soon as the ball went past him he looked a shewag in the slip. I've never seen a batsman look behind when there is an appeal for LBW. Not gentlemanly of him. For all the people saying Junaid should have given the MOM, the pitch aided him more. who knows if there was no aid from the pitch he may have remained wicketless.

on December 31, 2012, 1:40 GMT

I think indians were short of just one attacking/wicket taking bowler in this match.They would have been the winners if there was another wicket taking bowler to support Kumar.Both ishant and dinda are just supportive bowlers......

on December 31, 2012, 1:40 GMT

While most of the Indian fans' comments are on Dhoni, a few odd thoughts comes to my mind.

Both Rahane and Pujara are batsmen, more suitable for test matches. It is a shame that both want to prove to the selectors that they are good batsmen for the shorter formats. If both of them prove to be good for all formats, well & good. Otherwise…some bad memories creep in.

Badri tried and failed. Earlier Jaffer tried and failed. Tiwari may go the same way. All these guys, who could have been the core of batting for test matches, before the 'big four' retired, fell between the two stools - long form & short form.

In batting, at least we have a few to work on for a good team. For bowling, the shelf is almost empty. At the moment we have no world class spinners. In pace, B.Kumar is the new P.Kumar, when conditions favor swing. If not, they will be easy meet, with their kind of pace. Dinda is a great trier. Ishant is inconsistent. We need some world class bowlers, pronto.

TheScot
on December 31, 2012, 1:39 GMT

To: Posted by on (December 30 2012, 21:38 PM GMT)

Dear friend, MS Dhoni once batted at no. 5 and won the World Cup for India. Long time ago, eh?

saintsinister
on December 31, 2012, 1:13 GMT

Junaid Jamshed sets up win for Pakistan? I thought he was a singer :P Apart from that well played Pakistan.. Looking forward to a clean sweep in the ODI, T20 clean sweep was very close :)

Fezz
on December 31, 2012, 1:02 GMT

In 1st innings, the ball swung for first 10 or so overs, and then the pitch eased out. None of Junaid, Gul or Irfan got any assistance after that. The same happened in 2nd innings, when Kumar got the ball to swing prodigiously for the first 10 overs, and then it eased out. Pakistan batsmen were just looking to survive in the first 10 overs. So why did Dhoni mention 3 times in his post match conference that "the pitch eased out in 2nd innings". Will he ever give credit to the winning team ? will he ever run out of excuses ? No doubt he played a masterful innings, but please for once accept defeat gracefully !

Go check world cup record , I bet you won't write a comments again agaist india..,pak had good bowling attack in world cup 2003 ,,look at result what sachin did all Bowles .

on December 31, 2012, 0:15 GMT

Again i would say ......Indian Team....bunch of over rated players ...who cant play against Quality bowling attack.....Even SRT was not able to play against good quality bowling...he scored his most runs against minnows and some on Flat tracks like motorways....
As fas as MoM is concerned....it doesn't really matter...In the End it all that matters is who won the match....

AnilHG
on December 31, 2012, 0:05 GMT

Drop rohit sharma and bring back another alrounder like ifran pathan. Indian team cant depend on part timers always. Part timer is good when main bowlers got doing well or some other reasons like breaking routine, or to break partenership etc.

AnilHG
on December 30, 2012, 23:56 GMT

Congratulation to Pakisthan and Dhoni for his excellent Century. I cant understand one thing. When third umpire can interfere in field umpire decision when there is noball like Malik case, why can't he interfere when clean caught has taken and given not out? Why is this double standrad. what is the role of third umpire ?

maddog2013
on December 30, 2012, 23:55 GMT

India is no longer a Top 5 team in any format...the sooner they come out of denial and accept the fact that they are just paper tigers who are basking on past stats which means nothing at the present moment.

I like the comment from getsetgopk at the start...he is spot on with his assessment of the Indian batting order.

SpartaArmy
on December 30, 2012, 23:42 GMT

@Dhoni critics: Assuming most of the people here are "working" in SE, figure out how effective your team would be if half of your team programmers are as "talented" asu. As a "team leader" would you prefer fail-safe or bring-on approach?? For God sake, strictly speaking, India is only better than BD in bowling department. Give Pakistan, SA or even WI bowling to him, he will show how ultra aggressive he can be. It is a shame that people who don't even have the experience of leading a team of 10 people giving advice to a person who is leading a team that represents 1 billion people.

@Nitin: Couple of seconds I was reading Harsha's article and now this. It's like watching baby geniuses 2 right after Dark knight. Sorry mate, I may not agree with the view of an author, but I would definitely appreciate a well written article. Your idea of analyzing captaincy from the batting and then applying that "theory" to that particular over is "interesting".

Syed_imran_abbas
on December 30, 2012, 23:20 GMT

Gul is waste of space, he didnt anything in such a long time. Please give anwar ali a chance. I hope they give Ehsan adil a chance in next series. Azhar should be replaced by Umar Akmal. and Haris to repalce shoiab malik. well done junaid and jamshed and younis.

Salman_Arif_86
on December 30, 2012, 23:19 GMT

I might be bais since I am a Pakistani supporter but when did we start giving MOM from a losing team. You might have played very well but not well enough to win.

on December 30, 2012, 23:15 GMT

Article Title says: Dhoni's fighting ton in vain, in other words every body is agreed that Junaid's fighting spirit had already dropped curtain for India before Dhoni's fighting hundred would have done any thing.
and even if Dhoni's fighting hundred brought India back into the game then it was Jamshaid's fighting hundred that defeated Dhoni's fighting hundred, as Jamshaid was there from the beginning when ball was seeming and Pakistan was chasing a target and so he was more under pressure. But it was Junaid's spell that has set the tone of the match in Pakistan favor so the real man of the match should have been Junaid, and runner up is Jamshaid. Then we can discuss Dhoni's hundred.

on December 30, 2012, 23:03 GMT

I agree with Happy_AusBang. How come Dhoni Men of the Match, lolz indian team lost the match if they won this match so Dhoni option was not bad, specialy Junaid who destroyed Top indian bats man, but Indian Mafia, good on you guys!!

Alexk400
on December 30, 2012, 22:46 GMT

For me junaid khan deserve to be MOM. Jamshed and Dhoni cancel each other.

Congratulations for hard fought century. I do not agree with you for always picking Rohith Sharma and Jadeja. I pity Ajinka and Manoj. Please do not frustrate us including Rohith and Jadeja for the next match.
Rohith is talented guy in what ? If some body get that many chances they can score a century out of 20 games and seal their position in the team. Thats what finally happens. Otherwise I think there is a strong political pressure

on December 30, 2012, 22:35 GMT

Dinda, Sehwag and Rohit need to go. Yuvraj is also a more attractive T20 player, not a 50 over one. Gambhir is missing the plot...play the ball as you see it. India will recover for the next 5 years if they don't replace the non performers - which includes our beloved Mr. Tendulkar y'all. Let's give all youngsters a chance now so we can succeed 2 years from now. And let's feed our boys meat (not vegetables) is we want them to be "fast" bowlers???

getsetgopk
on December 30, 2012, 22:18 GMT

Where is Shastri? Where is Sunil Gavaskar and the tens and thousands of those Indians who used to say "India will beat Pakistan no matter where they play". Just because we didn't see the Indians in a full series for more than five years and that the Indians won a match here and match there every one or two years doesn't make India a better team than Pakistan. check out your past history of over sixty years of cricket and you will know that it has been Pakistan beating India most of the times. The reason why Sunil Gavaskar was against this tour is perhaps he didn't want the world to see Indian batsmen's horrendous technique against quality bowling like Pakistan, which he so eloquently described while doing commentary. We all know now how talented the so called 'worlds best batting lineup'. Couldn't deal with two young left arm fast bowlers in their backyard. Enough said!

ak_dragon
on December 30, 2012, 22:15 GMT

Its time to drop Rohit Sharma..n add one batting Allrounder or test new batsman...B.Kumar is a valuable finding for india. Pak should Call Anwar Ali...he is gr8 swing bowler....

on December 30, 2012, 22:13 GMT

Who agrees with me when I say that the Indian batting line up of previous years was the best of all time - Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly (and the rest were good too down to about 9 or 10) And i'm not talking about composite elevens. I mean real teams who played with each other. (p.s I'm English) Any other suggestions?

Happy_AusBang
on December 30, 2012, 22:04 GMT

It is baffling how they decided on Man of the Match. Admittedly Dhoni played a superb innings, so did Jamshed, perhaps Dhoni's innings was more flamboyant at the end, whereas Jamshed's innings was gritty. I thought Younus Khan played a match turning knock as well at a time when PAK were struggling with the run rate he managed to go run a ball. The contribution that stood out was the bowling of Junaid; 4 top order wickets (three of them clean bowled) at the cost off only 43 runs is what decided the match in the ultimate analysis. I can't understand how that did not deserve Man of the Match?

on December 30, 2012, 22:00 GMT

Dhoni played a really superb knock. The conditions he came in were very difficult. Had he not scored the 113 runs, India would have not crossed 100 runs. It was unfortunate that they didn't win but Dhoni deserves a round of applause.

pak78
on December 30, 2012, 21:55 GMT

congrats team pakistan and well batted jamshed and yunis and well bowled junaid what an absorbing day of cricket i thought when india were 29/5 that the match will be over very quickley but hats off to dhoni he played well for his century its not easy batting like that against pakistans superior bowling attack looking forward to 2nd odi.

getsetgopk
on December 30, 2012, 21:53 GMT

"Reputations counted for nothing as India's top order was exposed for their lack of technique against the moving ball against two seamers with a combined experience of 15 ODIs." Sums it all up nicely!!! How can these Indians claim that their batsmen are any better than those of Bangladesh? Their technique against quality seam and swing bowling was appalling would really be an understatement.

on December 30, 2012, 21:44 GMT

no duobt........A great win......Congratulation to all Pakistan....

Bota
on December 30, 2012, 21:39 GMT

on MOM the lame excuse is that conditions suit junaid so he wasnt given.....lol.....there were 2 centuries and almost 3 or 4 fifties in the match....no biggg swings ..were 6 pacers yet only conditions with junaid....isnt it amusing...come on india grow up.......reminds me of a tendulkar 113 run MOM in test match where afridi scored 141 and even pakistan win...conditions helped afridi :)

on December 30, 2012, 21:38 GMT

All those lauding Dhoni's average need to look a little closer at the details.. Today's was his first century for almost 3 years... and in his last 50 innings his average is just under 50, an average boosted considerably by the fact that over a third of those innings have been not outs, one of the benefits of batting down the order. If he is that good a batsman why does he not bat at no 4 or 5...

on December 30, 2012, 21:30 GMT

I don't understand why rohit sharma is missing from topic and what he is doing in indian team.He should be replace with a bowler or allrounder .

couchpundit
on December 30, 2012, 21:26 GMT

Why is Sehwag,Gambhir,Rohit Sharma are still palying?....How many chances will Rohit get? How long will Sehwag play like this...is he next tendulkar who lives just on reputation?

No matter what Dhoni does in captaincy is of little use when you have a top order of no use...I suggest Ashwin to Open...he is better of Batting than bowling. After marriage Gambhir is not his ownself... Rohit is a wasted promise who will be picked against all the talent in the world by BCCI.
We are better of blooding yound players like Manoj tiwary etc...oh no dont bring any karnataka/king fisher players

Top Order is a Joke ever since India won worldcup, both in Tests and ODI's

Albert_cambell
on December 30, 2012, 21:16 GMT

In the future india will have to call associates and play cricket with them. I strongly advise them to play intercontinental cup with associates.

on December 30, 2012, 21:07 GMT

Harmony come on ! Dude nasir jamshed is better batsman then dhoni.dhoni is like ((kadi dhoni tey kadi na dhoni ) and dhoni is playing for india as a captain for many years still have alots of experience. look at nasir inning not much experience as dhoni got, but they way he played and lead to victory its marvelous

alarky
on December 30, 2012, 21:05 GMT

A great innings by Captain Dhoni on a very difficult wicket. This is not the most difficult ODI wicket I have ever seen though. The most difficult wicket for an ODI match that I've ever seen was at Capetown, in a match between West Indies and Pakistan in 1993. Both team had some serious fast bowlers. Pakistan had Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. West Indies had Ambrose, Walsh and Patterson. Pakistan batted first and could only muster a paltry "43". West Indies also had a scare losing 3 quick wickets before winning the match. I should say that this was one of the matches where Brian Lara showed that he was always the BEST by far during his time. He opened the innings with Desmond Haynes; and when all the other batsmen from both sides were finding so much difficulty to play on that "MINE FIELD" he was hitting the ball as if he was batting in Antigua. He ended up NOT OUT with 26 runs, winning the match for West Indies in 12 overs. Wasim Akram and Wasim Raja may very well remember this match.

silversam1
on December 30, 2012, 20:55 GMT

This series continues to bring great cricket to the masses. Speaking as objectively as I can and taking nothing away from India, their recent win/loss ratio against Pakistan has been phenomenal mostly because these teams have played on lifeless pitches lately where superior batsmen thrashed under performing bowlers. Historically Pakistan has enjoyed an upper hand where conditions have been conducive for swing and seam bowling, India can not be beaten by spin alone (which can undo anyone else). I think this match highlighted the above assessment. Junaid and Irfan did very well to put pressure earlier on India, 11/10 to Dhoni for making a match out of this. The day Pakistan fielding and batting improve by even 25% they will become a consistent challenge. Jamshed played maturely. Kumar continues to impress, finally an Indian who can swing and create some excitement with the ball. I feel that Jamshed is an anomaly too, he gives off a vibe of confidence, unusual for Pak batsmen.

on December 30, 2012, 20:47 GMT

India need to improve...fast.

The top order failed YET again in today's game against PAK and have failed in previous games. PAK played well, they kept there nerve and deserved to win. Dhoni played brilliantly and he needed a big score today as he has been under alot of scrutiny over the past few months. The top order need to improve quickly. India's bowling isn't world class at all (I am an Indian Fan before I get shouted at) - Dinda bowls short all the time, Sharma needs some aggression and Ashwin hardly spun the ball today. The star of India's bowling was Kumar but if the ball isn't swinging in other venues overseas, he will struggle. The only two players that can field in the team at the moment is Raina and Kohli. The others look tired.

Come on India! Cut the politics out and bring in all the young stars who are performing well in the Ranji Trophy/IND Domestic! Its much needed if we are to succeed in future tournaments!

CricketingStargazer
on December 30, 2012, 20:44 GMT

"Dhoni's 100 ws a memorable captain's knock like the one Kapil Dev played in the 1983 world cup". I am sorry, but you have to be kidding! Kapil came in at 17-5, which rapidly became 78-7. He scored 16x4 and 6x6, whereas the other 20 players who batted managed 24x4 and 0x6. Kapil had a strike rate of 126 for his innings; no other Indian batsman passed 47. Kapil scored 175*, Kirmani, with 24* was he next highest scorer. And his innings won the match, although Zimbabwe finally lost by only 31 runs.

on December 30, 2012, 20:41 GMT

So does anybody else find it ironic that the one nation who most complain bitterly about umpiring errors is the same nation that is holding back the universal adaption of a system designed and proven to eliminate the vast majority of them. A simple case of you've made your bed, now go lie in it.

on December 30, 2012, 20:30 GMT

Dhoni came in when India we're 5 down. He played till the end unbeaten with the pressure of the team losing the 1st 5 wickets for 29 runs. That is huge. Nasir Jamshed was an opener, yes he played a patient innings, but he wudnt hav reached his 100 if it wasnt for Younus Khan. Dhoni played a memorable captain's innings like the one Kapil Dev played in the 1983 world cup. As for Junaid, he bowled well, but conditions did suit pace in the 1st innings, thts why pakistan elected to bowl 1st. I dont get you ppl, even after winning a game all i see is ya'll whining bout a Man of the Match title, which was given to a dude whu more than deserved it. Way to be winners guys. Still well played both teams, especially MS Dhoni. Best of luck for the next.

on December 30, 2012, 20:25 GMT

first odi really amused me, but the thing is that there are 2 odi left, and pakistan has a good chance to win this series. I am afraid if pakistan fails to do so then all the guns of criticism will be towards Pakistan. If Pakistan wins this series then whole india will be on fire at dhoni. As a biased thinker I feel there is no mistake of dhoni, as india has no genuine fast bowler or match wining bowler, so what dhoni can do so? he has to run the boys which selectors will give to him and he is working hard.

on December 30, 2012, 20:22 GMT

my two pennys on the MOM discussion .. may be some repetitions .. but here goes:

- dhoni's knock was awesome
as someone puts it, india was down and out when he came .. as captain too, that's NEVER easy
- dhoni's knock was better than jamshed's:
-- team-conditions were very different sure, but dhoni played a MUCH maturer innings .. both were dropped and all, but dhoni's innings had different parts to it, consolidation + finishing in the end. Jamshed was shaky many more times than dhoni. THOUGH admittedly, technically, as far as class of batting is concerned, i think jamshed is a better batsman than dhoni

Having said both these points, i think junaid should've won the MOM award. India's batting, though under-pressure by critics, is no-doubt one of the best in the world. I love watching them thrashing Pakistan bowlers everywhere :P
Beating that line-up when they're doing nothing but defence, by a young cricketer, deserved MoM (plus pakistan won, that counts too :))

on December 30, 2012, 20:18 GMT

I have reservations regarding the MOM being given to MS Dhoni. Junaid Khan deserve it.

on December 30, 2012, 20:15 GMT

Dhoni came in when they were 5 down for crying out loud. Stayed till the end of the innings unbeaten. Jamshed ws an opener, yes he played patiently, but he wudnt hav got his 100 had it not been for Younis Khan, admit it or not. Dhoni's 100 ws a memorable captain's knock like the one Kapil Dev played in the 1983 world cup. I dont get u ppl. Even after winning the game ya'll whine because Dhoni got the MOM title for an innings that well deserved it ? Way to be winners. Still well played both teams. Best of luck or whtevr for the next.

AamirAbuOzair
on December 30, 2012, 20:13 GMT

MOM should be Junaid. It cannot be Dhoni, there were two centuries and Nasir carried his bat to victory!

Cannot believe the decision make by the Indian board.On the lighter side, they might have chosen Dhoni because if he had not scored then the match could have finished in a couple of hours .....

on December 30, 2012, 20:13 GMT

Yep, Dhoni's knock was special.. if the pitch eased out a wee bit, the pressure mounted by top-order gone for next-to-nothing and humid conditions compensated for it. More-over he scored at a strike rate which was far superior. MoM should be awarded to the player with most overall impact on the match, irrespective of the result - by that account Dhoni earned it fair and square. Though IMHO, I'd also let Junaid Khan share it since his spell was again that 'impact' spell! Jamshed batted exceptionally well too. He soaked up the pressure, his fitness was obviously tested but he responded to deliver the win. Most of all, he's young and will only get better! No excuses for a wretched batting performance by Indian top order.

on December 30, 2012, 20:08 GMT

Plz any body suggest me ehy they made dhoni Man of the match.........even pak have junaid and Nasir performance..........y they do that
this is pure negative cricket.......

FRRR
on December 30, 2012, 19:59 GMT

Dhoni did not deserved Man of the Match ,,,, I mean come on,,,, Junaid deserved it. Dhoni got a consolation price so that indian people do not feel humiliated after the loss.

on December 30, 2012, 19:59 GMT

Remember same pitch same conditions what happened to indian bowlers....???? no doubt junaid is outstanding he should be the MOM.don't forget if jamshaid is dropped then dhoni also dropped in his inning..come on guys.... pakisatan u rokxxx...well played....keep it up...make it 3-0...

NaveedKh
on December 30, 2012, 19:43 GMT

Some of Indian cricketers are really very good players but even then they are are so much over rated, over hyped and over valued. In a match, sachin was judged MOM where he scored 113 and india lost the match, afridi was totally ignored eventhough he scored a match winning inning of141. Indians are too biased and over rated. Tendulkar got most MOMs in losing matches. Dhoni will break his record. This award was given to him only because of over appreciation of Ravi Shastri and Gavaskar. They said, we are witnessing one of the best odi inning in hisyory of cricket. Conditions were same when Pak batted. Overcast and humid conditions and sun never showed up in whole day. MOM should have been given to junaid khan but indians dont give this award to a bowler then it should have been given to jamshed who batted superbly under pressure in same conditions.

on December 30, 2012, 19:27 GMT

It's amusing to see some people make excuses for India's loss due to various reasons, instead of highlighting India's batting line-up, which has been doing poorly for sometime now. In fact, the consistent failure of India's batting is one reason why they have failed to win many matches in recent times. Anyway, Pakistan have done well so far, given they were expected to loose most of the matches before this tour started. Well done to both teams for excellent display of Cricket. Good luck in the next match.

on December 30, 2012, 19:22 GMT

on MOM the lame excuse is that conditions suit junaid so he wasnt given.....lol.....there were 2 centuries and almost 3 or 4 fifties in the match....no biggg swings ..were 6 pacers yet only conditions with junaid....isnt it amusing...come on india grow up.......reminds me of a tendulkar 113 run MOM in test match where afridi scored 141 and even pakistan win...conditions helped afridi :)

on December 30, 2012, 19:20 GMT

Century in 3 yeas, and still a captain? Virat Kohli deserves to be captain of Indian Team. I guess, politics are same in India and Pakistan.

on December 30, 2012, 19:17 GMT

What a biased crowd and man of match decision. Mediocre young inexperienced bowler picks up 4 indian front line batsman by beating them completely and MoM goes to an over-rated captain if not batsman who seemed uncomfortable hitting the ball in the right spot. Although Dhoni was lucky and mistimed the ball he was no way close to changing the outcome of game sealed by Junaid's extraordinary effort with the ball. Dhoni could not steal his thunder but ending up stealing the check. Lol

mars2009
on December 30, 2012, 19:17 GMT

Praising dhoni is just like praising doctor for successful operation although patient died during operation.

on December 30, 2012, 19:16 GMT

Man of the Match
Junaid - 4 wickets out of first 5 - though he bowled not that good in later half of the match

Dhoni - Good batting but after 10 overs pitch was relatively easy - still a great knock though he was dropped as well - and many 4's he got by chance as he was playing in other direction or you can say mishit

Jamshed - he played the first 10 overs when ball was moving around, managed to play till 48 overs until his team won - dropped as dhoni was also dropped - so why he was not MAN OF THE MATCH?

Harmony111
on December 30, 2012, 19:15 GMT

A grt many ppl here say that Dhoni should not have been given MoM cos Ind did not win the match. I would say that Junaid too had a claim to the MoM award but he bowled in helpful conditions while Dhoni built his innings in diff times and then exploded in the final overs. As for Jamshed's 100 and his claim to the MoM award - come on guys, do you really mean his knock was even 50% as good as Dhoni's?
Anyways, the way India are playing at the moment, it seems they have too many impedances and they are eating them away. May be they are simply jaded, may be they have all faded. In the 3 T20s and this ODI one can see that India are struggling to put up a solid performance. India did win the 1st T20 vs Eng but after that they just look too tired and demotivated. No wonder its the new kid who has impressed the most. Let's hope he has a long career ahead of him. Pak have impressed all of us here. They still aint a perfect team but some players are awesome. Junaid for eg. What's wrong with Ajmal

on December 30, 2012, 19:07 GMT

@Harmony111. Don't knock Nasir just to make Dhoni look good. Both played really well in tough conditions. Dhoni received the MOM award but Junaid deserved it more I reckon. Indian bowlers also had the helpful conditions available to them but were they successful? Anyway, it will be nice if we can appreciate talents from both countries and enjoy this wonderful game. Kudos to Pakistan. Well played.

kaidranzer
on December 30, 2012, 19:03 GMT

Losing is fine but I just can't believe some of the comments here. "CSK players played well". "Don't criticize CSK.". What is wrong with you people? This is "India" vs Pakistan, not IPL-United vs Pakistan. Even though being an Indian supporter, I wish India gets thrashed in every series in 2013. Hope that would bring some sense in these people and the administrators.

on December 30, 2012, 19:03 GMT

not a fan of indian cricket .. but Dhoni's innings yesterday was special no doubt about it

Raj12345
on December 30, 2012, 18:56 GMT

It is time drop RG forever. He has not played last 10 ODI. He should not selected again. But no one knows how he got into team again and failing again. It is enough fooling us. It is time to wake up and remove him from team. He never is going to learn from his mistake.

Alexk400
on December 30, 2012, 18:51 GMT

Dhoni must be stripped of captaincy. Players are not playing for him. he is not inspiring them to rally around him. I would rest sehwag completely. Even though i am fan of sehwag , i think he needs mental rest and ofcourse i want him to get Lean and Mean. ( too much fat belly). Gambhir has to go. Kohli has to be ODI captain. Bring Rahane and Murali vijay to open.

knan
on December 30, 2012, 18:51 GMT

Pakistan bowled well in helpful conditions to put the Indians on the backfoot. Otherwise nothing much to choose between the two teams. I would back India to win the next two games and take the series. It is also time to drop Sehwag and play Rahane in his place. Hope that Kohli is fit enough to plat at Kolkatta. Go India !

The_bowlers_Holding
on December 30, 2012, 18:49 GMT

I watched the first 30 overs of this game and Pakistan looked very impressive indeed, from the report Dhonni showed his grit in a real captains innings in a lost cause. If is apparent if Sewag gets out Gambhir is sure to follow quickly after, the bowlers found movement early on and the Indian batsmen looked lost. I am sure measure will be taken to ensure pitches offer nothing to the bowlers in the rest of this and the forthcoming England series.

Harmony111
on December 30, 2012, 18:31 GMT

A grt many ppl here say that Dhoni should not have been given MoM cos Ind did not win the match. I would say that Junaid too had a claim to the MoM award but he bowled in helpful conditions while Dhoni built his innings in diff times and then exploded in the final overs. As for Jamshed's 100 and his claim to the MoM award - come on guys, do you really mean his knock was even 50% as good as Dhoni's?
Anyways, the way India are playing at the moment, it seems they have too many impedances and they are eating them away. May be they are simply jaded, may be they have all faded. In the 3 T20s and this ODI one can see that India are struggling to put up a solid performance. India did win the 1st T20 vs Eng but after that they just look too tired and demotivated. No wonder its the new kid who has impressed the most. Let's hope he has a long career ahead of him. Pak have impressed all of us here. They still aint a perfect team but some players are awesome. Junaid for eg. What's wrong with Ajmal

on December 30, 2012, 18:27 GMT

Can someone please let me know why the MOM was given to Dhoni inspite of Jamshed scoring a century for a winning cause for his country and Junaid took four wickets to make India lose.Can anyone explain why Rohit sharma is in the playing X1 even after Tiwary proving again and again on what he is capable of.One thing i clearly understood from today's match is its all just for some marketing and not with the true spirit of cricket.The selection of Rohit clearly shows one should not talk against the selection committee and the captain.Worst part is we still watch the matches with same patriotism and passion.Can we please try to read between the lines of BCCI's marketing strategy too fool the fans of Indian Cricket...SO SAD OF US.................

kalyanbk
on December 30, 2012, 18:20 GMT

Bring in Pujara, Irfan Pathan and Pragyan Ojha and take out Rohit, Gambhir and Ishant. Play five bowlers using Ashwin and Pathan as all rounders.

on December 30, 2012, 18:19 GMT

Match Analysis 30/12/2012: Well first off congratulations to Pakistan for an impeccable performance both with bat and bowl and the fielding has improved significantly. The swing bowling of Juanid and Irfan completely tore India to shreads and they had absolutely no clue what to do out there. The biggest weakness India have is against the swinging or the ball that shows prodicious movement. Pakistan thoroughly deserved their victory and India need to go bac to the drawing board and work on how they are going to more effectively play the swinging ball, for that is the biggest hurdle for them.

Let see what will happen and India may be better off making some changes to their line up as sewag is not as effective anymore and should simply hang up the gloves and leave the cricketing world, his time has gone plus he will be useless agaist the swinging ball due to his lack of movement at the crease - a serious technical flaw, gambhir also needs to go. Bring in Ohja and Balaji.

dmqi
on December 30, 2012, 18:17 GMT

Pak was lucky to win the toss, otherwise it could have been a poor defeat to India. Both team played good cricket, spacially MSD and NJ in batting. My MOM is Junaed Khan as that bowling spell decided the fate of the game, no question. He was deprived.

roaringlion007
on December 30, 2012, 18:15 GMT

I don't understand one thing. Usually the winning team's performance which decides the result of the match gets 'Man of the match'. Here match winning performance was from Pakistan's "Junaid Khan" whose 4 wickets decided the result of the match. Less likely but it could even have been Nasir Jamshed's century performance. I'm not able to understand why/how Dhoni became the Man of the match. Seeing Dhoni's innings he got that century out of luck mostly. 2 times dropped. Also many boundaries/runs he didn't have any idea where the ball was going. Man of the match decision doesn't look to me out of good sportsman spirit.

on December 30, 2012, 18:09 GMT

well played both teams. kudos to junaid and dhoni. re umpiring, there are times when the best of them make mistakes. time india considered using drs

ansarri
on December 30, 2012, 18:05 GMT

well said GerrardLK you just expressed my thoughts

CricketingStargazer
on December 30, 2012, 18:01 GMT

It's turning into a tough winter for India. From the relative high of an ODI series win in Sri Lanka followed by a Test series win v New Zealand there hasn't been much good news and things are getting worse. Eliminated from the World T20. Lost the Tests to England. Have only shared the T20s with England and Pakistan and now looking second best in this ODI series. The alarming common thread is the constancy of comments in each series that there is a world conspiracy of umpires against India. I don't know if this is just a small lunatic fringe of fans, or a genuine national paranoia. Step one in fixing playing problems is to admit that you aren't good enough and try and do something about it, not to keep moaning that you are being cheated by the umpires, the groundsmen and your unscrupulous opponents! Pakistan manage to produce genuinely fast bowlers and both threatening seamers and spinners despite the supposed impossibility of producing pitches with life in Asia!

on December 30, 2012, 18:01 GMT

can anybody have any justification about Rohit Sharma why he has playing in each & every T20 & ODI. every time Indian team is playing with 10 players + Rohit Sharma bcz he is not capable enough to perform either in bowling or batting. but everybody is talking about Sehwag nobody about Rohit Sharma. Sehwag is 100 times better then Rohit Sharma if Sehwag doesn't deserve a place in Indian team then Rohit Sharma certainly not. Sehwag win any match on his day single handidly can Rohit Sharma?

Sinhaya
on December 30, 2012, 18:00 GMT

@bhrangi, I am a Sri Lankan fan and I dont care what other Lankan fans may say as I cant control it. Actually we as a cricket board must be grateful to BCCI for helping us stay a float. Regarding our tour of Australia, I was happy that we got thrashed because no way does a country like ours which has an incompetent corrupt cricket board, which keeps culling off our tests deserve to win a marquee test like the Boxing Day test. Not just that. Sanga and Mahela are on one side clamouring to play at the MCG and SCG. But on the otherhand desperate to play IPL and wanted England series this year to be just 2 tests instead of the usual 3. These 2 big talkers were totally silent when the home tests against SA scheduled for next year was postponed. Now Sanga is saying we are not getting enough tests. So MJ and Sanga better remember that there is an inevitable opportunity cost when it comes to fulfilling their "aspirations".

Night-Watchman
on December 30, 2012, 18:00 GMT

What an exciting young pace bowler to come out of Pakistan! I am so happy to see Junaid Khan and the passion he put into his bowling. He has so many illustrious compatriots to get guidance and advice from. Hope he keeps a level head and goes from strength to strength. Great to see top quality pace bowling on Indian pitches. Best wishes to him.

Indian team reaffirmed their reputations as feather-bed bullies.

likeintcricket
on December 30, 2012, 17:58 GMT

Great performance from both sides under trying conditions. India's comeback was remarkable and give them lots of confidence. India has a very long batting lineup and Ashwin is a regular batsman to me. Pakistan has a complete bowling resources but they lack one day specialist batsman and final over bowlers. But I think Pak batting is very solid and can achieve a target against Struggling Indian bowling easily. They are playing without fear in India and with a very positive energy.

on December 30, 2012, 17:57 GMT

Man of the match should be winning team either Junaid Khan for his 4 wickets or Jamshed for his 101 runs (not out). It is India always selfish.

on December 30, 2012, 17:55 GMT

Dont know why people keep on criticizing misba ul haq. He is the only one in the team deserving the captaincy. Due to his calm and cool approach he guide pakistan towards victory....yes he did drop a catch but it should not force us to consider droping him from the side. Its the players like him that anchor pakistan unstable and unpredictable batting lineup. For anyone in opposition please chck out his average......And for me even the small inning of azhar ali was very crucial as he was able to protect the wicket when the ball was doing alot........But even if we want to replace him plz plz plz dont include umar akmal...this batsmen is immature and need to sit in the bench for sometime to come back in his senses.....

on December 30, 2012, 17:50 GMT

why rohit sharma is still having place in playong eleven.. why dhoni is still not coming up the order at no 5 or no 4.. why pragyan ojha is still not considered in playing eleven.. BCCI and dhoni needs to think on these options i suppose..

JBerger
on December 30, 2012, 17:48 GMT

It's always a treat to see a display of good fast bowling. MOM could have been shared between MSD & JK although Junaid was the best choice in my opinion.
It's really ridiculous to criticize MSD as he had a masterclass performance & still is by far the best choice as a captain. People complaining about umpiring errors sound cynical as their own Board don't support technology for these issues! By the way if hawk-eye was there, it might had shown for Younis, the ball was going to miss the leg stump or not! The caught behind appeal for Jamshed was confused by the lbw appeal, there the technology would have favored India but that's when they had the technology in place. Hope to see some more good fast bowling spells as they come in rarely. Hope to see some more fine young talents in fast bowling. Good luck to both teams.

bMike
on December 30, 2012, 17:47 GMT

@bhrangi: I don't think any subcontinental team has ever played as bad as how India did recently. I don't remember any subcontinental team losing 8 away tests continuously as bad as India. So any advice from any cricketing nation would be a great blessing to your team. Before giving advices to others about how to bat in seaming pitches how about giving advices to your own team about how to bat on your own flat highways without losing the middle stump?

Al_Bundy1
on December 30, 2012, 17:47 GMT

Agree with @AH_USA - If India wants to improve, it should not use any Flat Track in Ranji Trophy matches. Prevalence of flat tracks in India creates flat track bullies like Sehwag and the triple centurion Jadeja. These guys get exposed the moment ball starts to swing or spin. It also stunts the growth of our fast bowlers. Prepare lively tacks - whether spinning or seaming - and let there be a fair competition between bat and ball. We have quality pace bowlers in India - just look at the figures of IMTIAZ AHMED in current Ranji Trophy match between UP and ODISHA.

depp17
on December 30, 2012, 17:46 GMT

I just wonder why is dhoni given the man of the match when you have outstanding performances from pakistan team.This is biased selection. Junaid or jamshed were the one going for the run. Dhoni might have given india a hope but the outstanding's were from the winning team.

amilag
on December 30, 2012, 17:44 GMT

Pakistan will have to play better by playing aggressive cricket when they meet good teams! Minnow bashing like India will not show that they are a good team.

tmp789
on December 30, 2012, 17:43 GMT

@KrikFreak, it happens but rarely, there were previous occurrences taht I recall in 80s and 90s

I think Rohit is given way too many chances, ditto Gambhir. Drop them, give anyone who has not made a name in IPL a chance, I bet you that guy will play out of his skin.

on December 30, 2012, 17:39 GMT

Only two things in life are a given: a) Misbah being a scapegoat b) death.
@ SaadRocx : If Azhar hadn't faced those 38 balls and shielded Nasir in the process, Pakistan would have been 29/5 with no Dhoni to save them, but then I rarely credit Pakistan cricket "fans" with much desire to think before speaking. @ Mudassarali1990 : We should accept compliments graciously. @ Balbir Bahadursingh: In the t20 it wasn't too high, it was a bouncer but the 2nd in the over, hence a no-ball. Two are now allowed in ODIs.

BDforever
on December 30, 2012, 17:34 GMT

@bhrangi: For me you don't seem to be an Indian fan since the word 'cricket' should have been removed even from your vocabulary by now. According to current ICC player rankings Shakib topped ODI & test allrounder lists. I can't even see any Indian player close to him lol

Medcenter12
on December 30, 2012, 17:33 GMT

Dhoni's ODI average is in the top 4 of the world now 5th being Virat Kohli.

Yousufahmedl
on December 30, 2012, 17:32 GMT

@ProdigyA, yes dont you know umpires are humans and they make mistakes? Surely surely surely why on earth cant BCCI use DRS? Dhoni's body language indicated him seesawing towards DRS and hope he moves to the 21st century. Dont only mention today as a bad day of umpiring. There were plenty of bad umpiring decisions when England toured India last month. We Pakistanis suffered in Sri Lanka this year due to atrocious umpiring. So what is the solution to umpiring blunders? It is nothing but DRS. All umpiring errors could have overturned in both the occassions I just mentioned had DRS been there. Dont only mention Sharjah as a place where Pakistan benefitted in the 90s. All host teams benefitted due to lack of technology in the past when umpires made howlers even then.

on December 30, 2012, 17:30 GMT

Outstanding cricket from both teams. Great come back from India in the form of Dhoni's century but it was Pakistan who performed better than India in all departments. Good Luck to both teams for next game!

on December 30, 2012, 17:29 GMT

INDIA should not worry about this match,We are going to win next two matches,because it will flat tracks,Iam sure,we shall win

on December 30, 2012, 17:28 GMT

What hapd to Tiwary ? Why rahane is not fit for one day ? Where is Pujara? Our selectors can see only Rohit Sharma every time. They should start injecting rahane in the opening slot. I dont understand one thing, In the entire india we dont have 2 good pace bowlers or BCCI is not capable of grooming the talent ?

dxbssp
on December 30, 2012, 17:27 GMT

My personal openion Doni deserves to be the man of the match only because he has changed the match with some decent total. Had he not scored it would have been very easy for PAK to complete, atleast there was something for spectators...

For sure Jamshed and PAK team performed well to beat IND and rightly deserve for their right input.

IND selection need to think and consider new players from domestic cricekt who should be given chances to international test and ODI matches to be ready to replace the under-performers (specially Sewag/Gambhir/Rohit) who have been failing consistently. It is not right for the team management to keep young players who have the fire to perform in the bench and those who consider themselves registered to continue this way... What IND need is consistent performers and not who score 200 in one match and then does not score for next 10 matches...

on December 30, 2012, 17:27 GMT

Replace sehwag.Form a year top order failure is the problem that india have.
Bring Rahane and Manoj Tiwary instead of sehwag and sharma

on December 30, 2012, 17:26 GMT

Well, I believe Pakistan missed trick by not playing Anwar Ali in playing eleven. This wicket is tailor made for Anwar Ali - Those who don't know Anwar Ali, just search in you tube.

Satish_Sharma001
on December 30, 2012, 17:24 GMT

When are we Indians going to learm the art of fast bowling like Pakistanis. We are a nation of 1.2B people but we haven't produced a single genuine fast bowler while our neighbours in Pakistan prodcues fast bolwers so regularly like they grouw on trees. I think it is time for the BCCI to wake up and be serious about the future of cricket in India. We cannot rely on our batsmen to bail us out any more. Our batsmen have no technique to play swing bowling. Their lack of technique against the moving ball is expowed in England, Austrailia, then in the first 20-20 game and now in this one-day international. It is mind boggling how bad our players are against teh movingball. Sehwag is pathetic and should reite immediately if he has an ounce of dignity.

AH_USA
on December 30, 2012, 17:23 GMT

@crindex, @ProdigyA
When your board and players made the decision to not use the DRS technology in your matches and when you decided that it was okay to risk human error then you simply lost the opportunity to complain on bad decisions.

on December 30, 2012, 17:22 GMT

@Crindex - Third the ball is round , fourth grass is green, fifth ICC should bans all cricketers above 6 feet... Grow up man, accept the fact that Pakistan played better.

s_v_krishnan
on December 30, 2012, 17:22 GMT

@Khushwinder, Can't believe people like you still believe in Rohit, you still want him to give in Tests...Man common!!! I believe Dhoni is the best captain in current indian team but many times his team selection pathetic. He believed Ishant more than Umesh (later Umesh proved better), he still does not believing Rahane, M.Tiwary and believes Rohit and he dropped india's top bowler Ashwin in first T20. Can someone teach him to select best eleven? India still a very good team if they select good team.

dabhand
on December 30, 2012, 17:20 GMT

India should stop blaming umpires or use technology and let everyone see whether the umpire got it wrong, otherwise it will always be seen as the view of biased armchair umpires.

Cricket_archive
on December 30, 2012, 17:18 GMT

why is the selectors picking up players like useless sehwag and hopeless rohit sharma again and again after continuous failures and wasting talents like rahane and manoj tiwary who can play much better for the team and are good fielders as well.not like lazy sehwag who cant run few steps to take catch.

on December 30, 2012, 17:18 GMT

@ Umars01. Though I am also from Pakistan, this is wrong to say Ashwin wasn't the difference. Look at second T@20 why Pakistan lost ? Ashwin was the difference. Look at his economy rate, if there was rihanne or any other spinner pakistan could chase in 19 overs.

AH_USA
on December 30, 2012, 17:17 GMT

India's biggest problem is "flat tracks" because: (a) It makes their batsmen look invincible (b) it undermines the talent of their seamers and restricts their grooming.
With flat tracks, a good bowler will always look mediocre at his grooming stage and will never flourish to the state where he will be able to bowl well on flat tracks. Batsmen like Sehwag are always exposed when they play on a track with slight ball movement. In 2006, when India tourd Pakistan, Sehwag made 254 in the first test at Lahore and it was because the track was completely flat with absolutely no assistance to the seamers/fast bowlers. When a batsman scores a double-centuary then one would think that he is in form but in the 3rd test which was played in Karachi where the track always offers some movement, Sehwag was cleaned up at 5 and 4 respectively.
So, India will do a favor to its own cricket by starting to prepare sporting wickets. It will not only help it groom fast bowlers but will also help its batemen.

KrikFreak
on December 30, 2012, 17:16 GMT

Great game. Though Dhoni played an excellent inning, so did Nasir Jamshed. The Man of Match (MOM) award should have gone to Nasir -- winning team and great effort !

I don't recall seeing a MOM from the losing team. :-(

on December 30, 2012, 17:16 GMT

My dear Indian friends. Umpire made two mistakes. One for Azhar and one for Jamshed. But other then that there were a lot of mistakes NOT DONE BY THE UMPIRE. For example 4 clean bowled and super catch from Hafeez had to do nothing with the umpires. Then Pakistanis played much sensibly then Indians, again it was not umpires' fault. So please accept that India didn't play better then Pakistan today. Good luck next time.

deathstar01
on December 30, 2012, 17:14 GMT

Indians cant play pace bowlers. nice to see..

on December 30, 2012, 17:11 GMT

Pakistan needs a real fast bowler who can bowl in 150s. Wat local coaches are doing in pak? Have a look around in rural pak. There must be some1 wasting his talent with tape ball cricket.

umars101
on December 30, 2012, 17:11 GMT

@ProdigyA These umpires are choosen by ICC,,they dont come from pakistan

on December 30, 2012, 17:11 GMT

@umars101 - Are u commenting after watching todays match?? Ashwin scored 31 vital runs and bowled 10 complete overs gave away only 34 runs. He did his part. So just shut up & comment with ur sense.

Crazy4cricket40
on December 30, 2012, 17:10 GMT

NO doubt Dhoni played an excellent inning to take India to a respectable score but Man of the Match award should have gone to Junaid Khan as he was the one whu put Pakistan in driver seat since the beginning of the game. such a ridiculous decission. the young bowled an excellen spell, should have been awarded. congrats to Pakistan.

on December 30, 2012, 17:10 GMT

Yeah well played pakistan........ dunno wat dhoni did exceptionally to deserve the MoM, really it shud have been junaid khan

on December 30, 2012, 17:05 GMT

the reason why ghambir is struggling is Gary kirtsen ,,he was also his batting coach,,sehwag ,,ghambir,,ashwin is gud,..,.,rohit should be given chances in test matches not in ODIs,,...,he is test player,,.,.compare first class and list A avgs,..,.,.rahane pujara,,.,.umesh yadav,..,sreesanth,..,,should be in squad

on December 30, 2012, 17:03 GMT

Happy to see Ashwin Bowling Well. 2 Wrong Decisions and 1 bad luck, otherwise he would have finished with 10-3-34......What the hell sehwag is doing in the playing 11? Score runs once in 20 matches, World's most irresponsible and inconsistent batsman, liability on the field, drop catches, never score runs against quality bowlers & bowler friendly pitches & create differences in the team members against DHONI..I have heard ex-cricketers saying million times "Sehwag should always be in the playing eleven bcoz when he clicks INDIAN wins" wat a rubbish?

crindex
on December 30, 2012, 17:01 GMT

Umpire Ravi does not deserve to be in international league. He made 2 bad decisions: 1. Jamshed caught at slip by Sehwag off Ashwin. 2. Yunus Khan was plumn before wicket off Ashwin later on. Ashwin was unlucky on both occasions.

rivernile
on December 30, 2012, 17:01 GMT

India lost too many early wickets to really challenge Pakistan, but Dhoni played fantastic. But is it me, or does anyone else think that the man-of-the-match should have been shared between Dhoni and Jamshed?

crindex
on December 30, 2012, 16:57 GMT

Top order batting collapse and very very poor umpiring cost India the match. Umpire S.Ravi should never be allowed to umpire for international matches by the ICC. Yunis Khan was cleary plumb before wicket off Ashwin. He turned it down. But he was prompt enough to check the no ball off Ashwin when Shohaib Malick. The ICC must be sending out a message to the BCCI to consider DRS seriously.

on December 30, 2012, 16:56 GMT

well played youngsters, nasir, junaid, b kumaar and raina, don't ignore the dhoni the seasoned player and offcourse younus khan, both team showing real progress towards future in terms of senior and junior team work, particullary the induction of new player in a such a big serious showed the character of both team , but green shirt Management showed , the have home work for the series, sorry duncan you let down the indians

ProdigyA
on December 30, 2012, 16:54 GMT

This match reminded me of the 90's in Sharjah when Pak 13 (including 2 umpires) used to defeat Indian 11. Good job umpires. But I think India still did well from 30/5 to 227.

Hash_Tag
on December 30, 2012, 16:54 GMT

My God. Beaten again! But why should we be surprised? India did not perform well in the Asia Cup either. These are dark days for Indian cricket. We need a new approach - new people calling the shots. These failures have gone on long enough. BCCI is failing us all. Time for a change.

umars101
on December 30, 2012, 16:51 GMT

Everyone has been saying why ashwin was left out ,,now he has played two games and hardly made any difference

on December 30, 2012, 16:51 GMT

First of all I was happy to see the Indian captain fight, Dhoni is a good wicket keeper batsman, may one of the best in the business, but he is never a good captain or motivator and one who always falls short in getting the best 11 and 14 and doesn't know how to take command of his own team!.

How can one go own with the same batting line up which is failing in all formats? Who is Gautam Gambir ? is he running BCCI? Whats Rohit Sharma doing in the Indian 11 ? Will Shewag play in the 2015 world cup in Australia?

Someone please answer me?

AjitDJ
on December 30, 2012, 16:49 GMT

Can somebody tell me how many more chances Rohit Sharma will get to fail? How much longer will we keep destroying the careers of other skilled batsmen for him?

AHFAD
on December 30, 2012, 16:49 GMT

I am a Pakistan team supporter but I would say it was a lucky toss to win. Not sure why Umer Gul is getting the slot in ODI. He is good only in T20s. Sohail Tanveer should not be selected in subcontinent/UAE pitches. We should try some new bowler. Dhoni's century was one of the best. A true captains inning. Also the way Younis khan carried the inning.. it was awesome. if it was Misbah Pakistan would have been in deep hole. To me it was Younis and Nasir's partnership that took Pakistan home. Otherwise 200+ score is too much to chase for Pakistan batting under non-supporting biased Indian crowd.

bhrangi
on December 30, 2012, 16:49 GMT

@ bMike : In recent times, I never seen so many players injured in a match didn't know how to handle the bast bowlers. Yeah we lost many matches and but what about Sri Lanka ? I understand we have a problem with our team, If Australia and England fan tell me I have to accept but not from Sri Lankan , And you seem to have great cricket knowledge why can't you go and advise your team on how to face bowlers in Seaming pitches without any injury.,,

cric4world
on December 30, 2012, 16:44 GMT

@ddlj26 . our team is best at giving new dimensions and varieties to both spin n fast bowling. our team is best at producing good results without any high profile or even any international cricket in country.our country is best in appreciating good innings and good bowling performances rather then making excuses, and ask anyone in the world they will all tell u pakistan produces most thrilling cricket no matter they win or lose. oh and our team is best at producing great results without any superstar in side.

theRule19
on December 30, 2012, 16:42 GMT

Truely great game..thats why India-Pakistan games are the best..they bring the best out in many players. First of Pakistan bowled well as expected on bowling friendly wicket..Junaid and others look like very talented players but man of the match deservedly goes to MSD for a real master class..in conditions that were really tough against a quality bowling unit with no more batsmen left..Really for India, B.Kumar was the only bowler who looked like taking wickets and rather than supporting his effort non-performers like I.Sharma and hard worker Dinda were only looking to contain the batsmen bowling short-pitch stuff which the batsmen took advantage of..even the spinners were not bowling a line that was fullish attacking the stumps. If you see all the Indian wickets they were all out on full length deliveries all aimed at the stumps.
For Pakistan only time will tell how well Junaid, Irfan and others do in batting friendly pitches..for now good luck to both teams.

on December 30, 2012, 16:41 GMT

The worst year for Indian cricket ends with a defeat. Hopefully 2013 will be a good year for India.

on December 30, 2012, 16:40 GMT

Today Pakistan shown their real talent ... i just astonish that their bowling and batting really brilliant.Firstly i would like to gave full credit Junaid khan his blowing performance really amazing ! he took 4 vital wall wicket but the end of the day Jamshed and Yunush khan they are making solid partnership which is remarkable site for Pakistan team ... Best wishes for the rest of the games . ( M.s Dhoni you Beauty huge respect for you )

Yousufahmedl
on December 30, 2012, 16:39 GMT

Whilst Dhoni played well, Misbah dropping his catch helped him. Jamshed also was dropped by Yuvraj. So well no way should Dhoni have got the man of the match award. It should have gone to Junaid Khan.

kc69
on December 30, 2012, 16:36 GMT

I seriously feel good that Indian and Pakistani fan's compliment each other pretty well(most of them).I see people blaming bad decisions and missed chances but its India to be blamed for that(No DRS and missed simple chances).I'm an Indian and believe Pakistan won because they played better today.@GerrardLK:having an english name doesn't change your Sri Lankan nationality.

Yousufahmedl
on December 30, 2012, 16:34 GMT

Superb innings by Jamshed and also top class bowling by Junaid Khan. Jamshed can be even better if he can reduce about 10kgs of his body weight. His running between wickets will be affected due to his weigh. Jamshed has to play in the tests in South Africa as he is no doubt our best batsman in the shorter formats. Azhar Ali should open with Jamshed and Hafeez should come down the order. Prof Hafeez cannot face top quality pace bowling which he will face in SA. He better go down the order or he will be a walking wicket next month in SA.

ningaraj12
on December 30, 2012, 16:29 GMT

Well played dhoni.... but it doesn't prove anything.... gambhir, sewag and dhobi trown out of the team immediately....

Nampally
on December 30, 2012, 16:27 GMT

The limitation of much touted Indian batting were severely exposed against some accurate pace & swing bowling of Junaid Khan. 4 out of top 5 batsmen were bowled to seaming ball. This shows how poor the defence of Indian batsmen is. Sound defence critical to play a long innings. Even Dhoni with his awkward defence showed more guts than the top 4 batsmen with a brilliant fighting century. I personally think Ashwin is better @#3 than Kohli whose defence is suspect. Ashwin exposes how poor the top Indian batting order is each time he bats in a tight situation.He has become second Laxman - batting #8 instead of #6. Without getting a Total of 280 runs, Indian bowling is too weak to defend the lower totals. Lack of 5th bowler cost India 80 runs in 10 overs from part timers! Get S.Nadeem to reinforce the 5th bowling spot + Pujara to bat #4. That is the only way India will have any credibility.Insanity is repeating the same mistakes & expecting different results!Sanity demands these 2 changes.

on December 30, 2012, 16:23 GMT

CONGRATZ Pakistan for the great performance Dhoni you did a great Captains knock with full of patience. finally the better team won. Pakistan we SRI LANKANS need couple fast bowlers from the fast bowlers Factory in Islamabad. producing some great bowlers one after another.

kashijee40
on December 30, 2012, 16:22 GMT

Ohoooooooooooooo, What a master piece of bowling from junaid khan. Reminds me of Mohammad Asif Who has the same skill as junaid did. Indian top order has no clue of what goin. Kohli and yuvi were stunned by the masterpiece by junaid. On the other had India recovered well. Excellent Knock from Dhoni. When it seemed that india would not cross even 100 he was the man of steel. Awsome Knock. I think the only negative fromm pakistan is that they got relaxed by taking early wkts and Dhoni took full advantage of it. On the other hand Nasir Jamsheed was good from the start . Well Played Pak and full credit to junaid Khan

Al_Bundy1
on December 30, 2012, 16:21 GMT

Why do we keep recycling the same people again in the India team?? Why can't we try Rahane, Pujara, Tiwary, or Wasim Jaffer instead of Sehwag and Rohit Sharma. This Rohit Sharma experiment needs to stop. He has had enough chances to prove himself. Same thing goes with bowling. Stop recycling Ishant Sharma!! We need to try promising new bowlers like Shami Ahmed and Sandeep Sharma.

riz247
on December 30, 2012, 16:21 GMT

nice knock from jamshaid .he has proved that he is the opener pakistan has been looking for a decade.....and i m surprised like many other that dhoni got the man of the match award....sigh

ddlj26
on December 30, 2012, 16:20 GMT

Another match decided by some real bad umpiring decisions, jamshed was clearly out. i am not sure how the umpire was missing either the catch or the plumb decision, that was out either way.. either way i could figure that out from a tv screen, dont know how that was missed from 22 yards... dont know what that umpire was doing out there? And also younis khan was clear plumb to ashwin... some pathetic umpiring turned the match in pak's favour.... Anyways got to give credit to junaid khan, good swing bowling .... for people criticizing india for being flat track bullies... if there is a ever term like that than India is the best track bully team out... tell me what your respective team is best in ?

Stark62
on December 30, 2012, 16:18 GMT

That was a classical Dhoni innings because he is the type of player that will make a quick 50 or has to grind it out in the beginning, in order to launch at the end because his technique is not up to the task of playing a long innings.

Anyway, Pak's team is heavily imbalanced because we have to either play 4 specialist bowlers (like today) or 7 genuine batsmen (not including keeper).

I hope this victory doesn't paper over the cracks because if it was a high scoring game, then Pak would have lost with that middle order and no one is present, that could lift the tempo.

Yes, Kamran is an aggressive player but he doesn't come off every time, plus Younis and Malik only perform against Ind, hence Harris Sohail should be given a chance.

Lastly, I've never seen Junaid swing the ball like he did today, which means someone has been working with him closely and doing a very good job.

on December 30, 2012, 16:16 GMT

Indian team just need 3 changes ..take gambir,sehwag and rohit out and bring rehane ruyudu herbagan/ojha in .and this team will b on winning track again

on December 30, 2012, 16:13 GMT

Indian strategy to winning at home. Make pitches that take bowlers out of the equation. Make it that whoever than scores most runs wins. Does not work when pitch is bowler friendly. It works in India's favor as they do have a strong batting line up. I don't think it will help them in the long run though or oversees and the results prove it both ways.

GerrardLK
on December 30, 2012, 16:10 GMT

INDIAN CRICKETERS in summary:Batting line up- Sehwag, Gambhir & Rohit are just useless & nothing else to comment. Yuvi- A flat track bully, Virat- A good prospect, but still to be tested. MS & Raina- Only in subcontinent pitches & a walking wicket in overseas. Bowling attack- Ishant is just a big mouth but a pedestrian below average bowler. Dinda- He better try for long jump competition in Olympics rather than playing cricket. Bhuvanesh- Another P.Kumar in the making. Ashwin- Does not know anything about sportsmanship with his pause action bowling & on field miss behaviors. That concludes a pathetic display of Indian cricket. Feel sorry for their fans.

kashifjaved79
on December 30, 2012, 16:10 GMT

Well done Pakistan, however i think Umar Amin should get a chance in one days as that would solidify the middle order instead of banking on Shoaib Malik. As far as bowling is concerned Ajmal needs to slow his pace , he seems to be too worried about not conceding sixes resultantatly bowling too fast and flat. Try wahab riaz instead of Gull he has stopped using his head. Indian average bowlers like Ishant and Dinda are made to look good by Misbah he totally dosent deserve a place in the side.

Perera32
on December 30, 2012, 16:10 GMT

@bMike: Well said mate. Any way, well played Pakistan, the better team won. Im backing Pakistan to win the series.

dustmizer
on December 30, 2012, 16:05 GMT

i laughed so hard at Ravi Shastri's comments about the Indian bowling attack...he said.."a lot of Indian batsmen would love to queue up to bat against themeselves"...epic! hahaahaha..He is one funny dude. Dustmizer

Hira1
on December 30, 2012, 16:04 GMT

a very fine performance from Pakistan and I hope they repeat same performance in the next match and win the series. India too didn't played badly but the difference was Junaid bowling who took the game away from India, he should be the MOM.

realfan
on December 30, 2012, 16:03 GMT

well played pakistan, congrats.....
junaid is surely good find for pakistan

Syed_imran_abbas
on December 30, 2012, 15:58 GMT

I wish Anwar Ali was playing.. Would have been ideal conditions for him. Similar bowler like kumar but with better speed. I you guys dont remember go to you tube and type his name. (gul is waste of space)

Pak_alldway
on December 30, 2012, 15:55 GMT

@akshita27::u mentioned eng whitewashed pak n u forgot pak did the same in odi but they whitewashed u in eng 4-0 n then even in ind went on to win the series

on December 30, 2012, 15:55 GMT

If the Pakistani quicks are on song the opposition is in trouble. Taking Junaid was a master stroke. A new quick always keeps the opposition guessing and that was the reason for India's downfall. Sohail Tanveer fails routinely and I guess his days are numbered. All in all this was a super bowling show by the Pakistani quicks and they deserve all the accolades. Dhoni must be beaming by sticking one up to his critics. Even the great Gavaskar was so wrong to suggest that Kohli be made Captain. Kohli has been very brittle lately against quality Pak quicks. What's he going to do against Stein or Morkel. Besides he handles himself like a street punk on the field. Does not have the air and dignity of a Captain and leader of men. Great show Dhoni. U r truly a man of steel.

on December 30, 2012, 15:52 GMT

Good game of Cricket, Bat Well Jamshed & Dhoni, but the real hero was Junaid Khan Superb Bowling by Junaid Khan, but really very poor Decision while choosing Man of The Match nominate, Junaid was deserving for Man of the Math, any way Most important pakistan won the match, congratulation to all ..

VJ_Cricket
on December 30, 2012, 15:51 GMT

Maybe India shud treat Ashwin as bowling all-rounder than specialist bowler, to give the team more flexibility. Though Ashwin is not finisher by any means.

Again ppl asking about Irfan Pathan...INJURY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Angry_Bowler
on December 30, 2012, 15:50 GMT

Questions like why Rohit is in team India should not be raised at all because he is the worlds best batsmen ever, his talent is equal to Sachin, Lara, Richards, Pontings, Inzi, Sanga, Peterson, Gavaskar, etc. combined, sorry if I missed any other legends. So even if hits 10 runs it's worth a century, if he hits 50 it's worth double century, if hits 100 its worth triple century. Thats why he should play longer than Sachin and break all his records. Cause he is the only player that India has from a billion. So stop and praise him just like you did for Sachin and do like Gavaskar and Shastri.

RF-Frequency
on December 30, 2012, 15:49 GMT

Has Dhoni silenced his critics now or what?

on December 30, 2012, 15:49 GMT

man of the match shud hv been given to junaid or jamshed...its always for the winning contribution..at same time i will praise dhoni for his gr8 innings...as a pakistani i can tell u tht among indian players,,most fans r of dhoni...very little fans of others n lots haters r also there :)...umar akmal shud also b given a chance in next match in place of azhar ali mayb.

Akhter786
on December 30, 2012, 15:48 GMT

@prabash
well bro u have gone extremely over the top by calling Dhoni n Raina, Legends

i think it may give cramps in the guts to the original legends,,,,

they are good and dhoni is more than good infact lot better than good but legends dont come so cheaply,,
Sachin n Dravid are not born n made every now nd then

bMike
on December 30, 2012, 15:45 GMT

@sachin_vvsfan: SL played until the last hour of the 5th day in the 1st test match in Australia & in the 2nd match they played bad but you know they had only 8 players to play since 3 players were already injured during the match. In terms of get mud-rolling the way India lost 8-0 consecutive away matches is beyond comparison. You know who got mud-rolled in England and Australia. You know who was kicked out in all recent tournaments like Tri-series, Asia cup & T20 world cup held in different countries. And you know who got mud- rolled during England test series at home even on own flat tracks. So after everything now you know who got mud-rolled in every part of the world even though you were expecting some other side to get it

Tokai69
on December 30, 2012, 15:44 GMT

It proves again, IND batsman are flat batting heroes. The game has been over after 10 ovs. Dhoni's heroic century just to prolong the process, but not enough after top order collapse. Good bowlers should be rewarded more in every domestic event. I believe IND should stop playing with teams like AUS, PAK, ENG, SA for now, as they need to build up their confidence back as a team, rather play with minnows like ZIM, BAN, NZ, AFG, IRE some series

bhrangi
on December 30, 2012, 15:43 GMT

Congrats Pakistan,,., At least Dhoni saved us from humiliating defeat like SL in Australia 103 . Thanks to Dhoni.,.,@bMike: I was searching for you when SL rolled out for 103 didn't find ?? Now you are here LOL., @BDforever : Yeah dude thanks for the advise., I wonder why are here as you know the result ?? And you don't seem to be Bangladesh fan because you are still watching cricket.,LOL

on December 30, 2012, 15:42 GMT

It was good to see a class swing bowling by Pakistani bowlers after a long time....Junaid khan is really proved again to be a world class bowler, he really deserved for a man of the match.......it's very bad dicision by jury...Dhoni does not deserved that.

Wonderful batting by MS and Jamshed.

on December 30, 2012, 15:38 GMT

Well deserved victory for Pakistan.....

JChandi
on December 30, 2012, 15:38 GMT

This Indian team is not different to SL team, only different is they get thrashed in their own den. Well played Pakistan!!

on December 30, 2012, 15:37 GMT

Pakistan beat India, great display of batting by Nasir and awesome bowling by Pakistani seamers.

Indian_Cricket_Fanatic
on December 30, 2012, 15:36 GMT

And over DRS the least said the better, today the 2nd bowl of the innings saw msd asking for referal to billy bowdon in jest. Umpires do commit mistake but getting an accurate decision is rather more in the spirit of the game than accepting silliest of human mistakes.
what does not look like in the spirit of cricket?
younus khan not walkin back to pavillion today when he had an inside edged one to go catch to sehwag? It is not in the spirit of cricket.But in the same sense, had he not edged and he had been declared out by the umpire, he returning back to the pavilion is not in the spirit of cricket.
Decision should be made and the right one. DRS gives close decisions in favor of umpires so it is in spirit of cricket. It does provide better accuracy and provides that even though umpire is a human who can make mistakes, you as a team have an opportunity to get the right decision when its not made. And there are only 2-3 chances so umpire's authority is smartly questioned.

on December 30, 2012, 15:34 GMT

A very good game to watch and enjoy. India do have depth in their batting but as usual, first four batsmen failed. Batting down to Ashwin is good for India.

India new 227 was not enough and they did not fight hard enough while Pakistan had all the time in the world to make the runs. India bowling coach need to wake up. If the seamers bowl one good delivery, they get a wicket other than that their lack of line and direction is like shaking a money tree.

Harbajan ??

I am bit confused with the cricket rules for bowlers or are they differernt rules for different formats? In the twenty/20 Ishant bowled a high ball, the batsman hit it yet it was called a 'NO' ball. I thought if the ball was high and cannot be reached then it becomes a 'NO' ball. This ODI, Ashwin heel was on the line marginally on the inside and the upmipre ruled it a 'NO' ball. I thought that when you are over the line it is 'NO' ball'. Commentators are saying that the line belongs to the umpire. Is this for all formats?

VJ_Cricket
on December 30, 2012, 15:33 GMT

Playing across the line and not being patient, reason for our top order debacle. Proof enough thatLikes of Rahane and Dhawan shud be in the squad / team.

Either Sehwag moves down the order or he makes way for other contenders.

Shame on Rohit to get caught rather than being bowled :P

Pak_suleman
on December 30, 2012, 15:33 GMT

another loss for india.without good bowling attack they can not win against big teams

Man!
on December 30, 2012, 15:33 GMT

Superb team effort by green shirts.. Proud ov u guyz... Well v all knw that nw the home team will go to their safest route 'FLAT TRACKS' and after batted on those dead pitches they will call their batsmen 'HEROS' and 'THE GREATS' :D Comm'on play on the lively pitches so you guyz will not embarrassed in S.Africa or Australia.. Anywayz V r ready whatevr comes from ur end but keep 1 thing in ur mind V r unpredictable ones so might be ur safest route will become the nightmare for u guyz :)

I found this article appreciating Indian players and there efforts more then Pakistani players for there performances. Using harsh, bashing words for Pakistan team and soft words for Indian is a proof. As, the writer is an Indian, I feel he mixed his feelings in his writing rather then writing a neutral report. I would really appreciate neutral reports then hiding cons of your own side. Regards.

Akhter786
on December 30, 2012, 15:30 GMT

Dhoni has always been a Oneday player infact over last few years probably he emerges as the best ODI batsman in crunch situations along the lines of Mike Hussey and Amla
off course u can add Flattrack star Kohli to it too if u want

SamRoy
on December 30, 2012, 15:30 GMT

@Shiva Subramaniam Dhoni might be a great ODI player, but he is a bad test captain. Worst test captain after Tendulkar in the last 20 years. He is defensive and let's games drift. Bowlers bowl defensive lines, not to take wickets but to contain the batsman. Forget Ganguly and Dravid who were good test captains (Dravid was a below par ODI captain), even Kumble and Azhar were better test captains than him (Dhoni). Although he is still irreplaceable as a wicket-keeper batsman he should with immediate effect be removed from test captaincy. And Gambhir and Sehwag should be dropped from test team with immediate effect. Bear in mind, Sehwag is my favourite player still playing the game but time has come for him to bid international cricket. Gambhir can come back into the test team when he scores runs in Ranji trophy.

balajit
on December 30, 2012, 15:30 GMT

Good match! Well played Pakistan! fantastic innings by MS dhoni. Toss was important but not that big difference to be 29-5 by 10th over. Technique of sehwag & gambir exposed again!

Indian batting & Pakistani bowling has always been strength of the sides for ages, however Pakistan bowling has been more consistent Whenever Indian batting does well India stand a chance. India need to try out Shami Ahmed in place of ishant in next match.

on December 30, 2012, 15:28 GMT

9 runs in 38 balls, is this man deserve for next game?

VinodGupte
on December 30, 2012, 15:27 GMT

how much more time before i hear comments like "dhoni plays for records", "dhoni plays for his hundreds", "dhoni scores and india loses" or "dhoni never wins matches for india"? how much more time before we turn hero into a villain? wrongfully, i might add.

Prabhash1985
on December 30, 2012, 15:25 GMT

Indians never seem to understand the value of Dhoni. Now you see, people praising. But, sometime back, they were speaking of removing Dhoni. This is what happens when they only understand the end result, but not the spirit. Dhoni, Raina won many games for India. They are true legends. See what happened to Dravid later. Cut from the team, gone unnoticed! But, he was such a great player, making winning a habit. I think Indians really need to appreciate the defeated, defeats. They keep on teasing other teams, blame their players. That's not right. Of course there is pain. But, it's a game. Not a war. Well played India. And congrats Pakistan. That match was a hot oven!

on December 30, 2012, 15:25 GMT

@Faisal Warna, if your stats are true.. then just WOW!!! really a "lucky 7" ummm for Pakistan i guess

Akhter786
on December 30, 2012, 15:25 GMT

while the discussions are on who should have been the MoM
best thing would have been to have Men of the match
as both junaid n dhoni deserved itequally

coming on to the match Indian so called strong batting lineup again proved that they are a bunch of Flat track bullies with rare odd good outings against seaming conditions (if ever)

Dhoni's was a masterclass and so was Junaid's,
Younis Khan showed it again why he is the best pakistani batsman.
India in serious trouble against quality seam fast bowling

PakCricSpin
on December 30, 2012, 15:22 GMT

It was another exciting quality match! Credit goes to the Pakistani pacemen for exploiting the pitch early on. Mohammad Irfan is a good find for Pakistan. But I am most impressed by B. Kumar. His inswings are perfect. What a great find for India. I hope he keeps at it and not become like Irfan Pathan.

One things for sure, Pakistan works hard with their bowling attack and the indians idolize batsmen. However this is India after all. And the pitch curators can easily design a pitch that favors batting and thats where India will gain a decisive advantage. Had Pakistan been put to bat before India today, Pakistan would've been in a much bigger trouble. Pakistani batsment performed admirably. They showed their class, especially Younis Khan. All in all excellent show and fight by both sides. Wonderful Cricket! :)

on December 30, 2012, 15:21 GMT

Selectors have to reconsider the inclusion of Gambhir,Sehwag,Dinda and Ishant.. and definitely give no CHANCE whatsoever for Rohit Sharma.. He is hightly over-rated and hyped batsman.. I can't recollect him playing any responsible innings in the last year or so, but has often found his place in the playing 11.. wonder how this happens, when there is so much of noise on why Sachin still stays there!! And he has hung his boots from ODIs now .. what do these detractors have to say now?!

Syed_imran_abbas
on December 30, 2012, 15:21 GMT

You must be joking that dhoni was the man of the match and not the man who won the match for Pakistan. Very very disappointing for youngster. Azhar is test material so please dont bring all test team in ODI's. Umar akmal must be in playing eleven. Also gul should be replaced with anwar ali. Honestly enough with gul. I hope haris sohail gets a chance as well. And junaid would have made quite difference in t20's as well if hafeez's fav sohail tanvir wasnt preferred on him.

drnaveed
on December 30, 2012, 15:21 GMT

an excellent game of one day cricket.both sides played well, in the end it was Pakistan who held their nerves and were victorious. for India, how can they play an international match with just 4 recognized bowlers,it is the part time bowlers who have cost them so many matches in the recent past, and still their selectors are continuing with them.secondly, the DRS,had DRS been employed in this match, result would might have been different ,but the BCCI still insisting that they don't want DRS in this form. for Pakistan, if they want to focus on 2015 world cup ,then they have to say bye bye to Misbah atleast, so this could be his last series , .... who knows ????????????????

BDforever
on December 30, 2012, 15:19 GMT

Expected win for Pakistan. Now it has become a habit for India losing every single tournament they play even at home. I don't know why they waste time on cricket without doing something they can do.

MonisRizvi
on December 30, 2012, 15:17 GMT

MoM, as I understand, is meant to be given to a player who has had the greatest impact on the match and result thereof (hence the phrase 'Man of the Match'). Dhoni's innings, while outstanding and heroic, did not have the same amount of impact on the match as Jamshed's. His innings never took the game away from Pakistan at any stage. It merely gave his side an opportunity to lose respectfully.

I am not against Dhoni receiving the MoM nor am I in anyway belittling his tremendous innings since doing so would be a gross injustice. But it doesn't make sense that Jamshed's effort was not deemed worthy enough of a recognition - a shared MoM award perhaps.

Interestingly, this is the second instance in Chennai when adjudicators have got it totally wrong. Reference: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63828.html

VJ_Cricket
on December 30, 2012, 15:17 GMT

I agree with MSD getting MoM, though ending up on the losing side ;

>> Spending almost 90 overs in the field

>> if it was not for his innings, we probably wont even have had a full match

And the judgement of performances should be exclusive to each format.
mukund,Rahane,tiwary,pujara,rohit are excellent prospects in test arenas.Should not have to be judged over t-20/odi performances and should be immediately groomed in.
There are some very good prospects in unmukt chand,manish pandey,mandeep singh,baba aparajith..etc who can do well if they are given opportunities in county and well learn much excellence.
BCCI should stop IPL overnight and do not undervalue the importance of County. Or they can do is be in talks with ECB and reschedule and minimise IPL.
Indian batsman can still survive without county as they have that one belief "Indian batting lineup is the best batting lineup" and so they can still prove to be successful by quickly adapting, but bowling needs different conditions to learn and adapt which is only possible by honest and non-money minded attitude of BCCI in grooming indian young prospects in different conditions.

on December 30, 2012, 15:13 GMT

Except Sehwag, the remaining 10 players in Indian team were from the T-20 squad. But, Pakistan chose Misbah, Yunus, Junaid in their one-day squad. In a 50 over match, the team needs 2-3 players, who can play the role of an anchor and support the hitters without losing their wicket. If all 11 players are hitters and no-one is an anchor, then the inning colapses. This is what we saw today.

Did we miss Sachin today? Earlier Sachin/Dravid and sometimes Gambhir used to play the role of an anchor. India should get Pujara and Rahane in the final squad and drop Sehwag and Rohit.

haq33
on December 30, 2012, 15:08 GMT

Love how the title reads "junaid jamshed" ......as if the singer of dil dil Pakistan himself has inspired today's victory. I feel all nostalgic now about 1992.

joshofali
on December 30, 2012, 15:06 GMT

Superb Batting by Dhoni and Nasir Jamshed in these conditions.
But I think it is unfair decision to give Man of the Match award to dhoni I dont think he deserve this award this award should be given to Junaid Khan he deserve this award seriously. The way he bowled out the world class batting order it was special than the dhoni's inning.

Pak_Fan86
on December 30, 2012, 15:05 GMT

Congrats Pak! But i must praise Dhoni, the inning he played considering conditions and pressure, was awesome, i have always been a big admirer of Dhoni, as a batsman and more than batsman he is an awesome leader. But today, it was Pak's day. Junaid and Irfan bowled awesome, i know conditions favored them but still u need skills to use them. All those fans who blaming umpiring, DRS is always there, not accepting it means u have to be ready for these human errors. I just hope Pak maintain its consistency which would be little difficult as they have always been inconsistent and also becuz in next match i m sure we gonna see a flat track. Well, anyways, today Green Shirts played really well. Congrats to all Paki fans! and indian bros, still 2 matches left, anything could happen, and still its just a game!

on December 30, 2012, 15:04 GMT

what are people like sehwag and gambhir doing in the team.they can't bat,can't bowl and are liability on the field.They have grown adamant and think that nobody can throw them out irrespective of their insipid performances.Let them play in IPL and make as much money as they want but please don't let the amazing talents(pujara,rahane,manoj tiwari) get wasted at the expense of these obnoxious snobs who think only of themselves and don't care for the Indian team. Even Rohit Sharma has got too long a rope.C'mon selectors it's high time to make some bold chnges.Stars like pujara,rahane,manoj tiwari are waiting in the bench for too long.Atleast give them a fair chance.

youknow
on December 30, 2012, 15:03 GMT

is it the start of the end of some fabulous entertainers in Indian cricket ?

i

on December 30, 2012, 15:00 GMT

I am still wondering if it was wise to give Dhoni the Man of the Match award ..hmmm....

VivSingh
on December 30, 2012, 14:59 GMT

Well done to the groundsman or whoever was responsible for deciding to go with a grassy wicket. Gambhir and Sehwag again exposed on seaming wickets. This is a sign of things to come in South Africa so let's see what the Indian selectors make of this. Steyn, Morkel and Philander are licking their lips no doubt. Well played Jamshed and Junaid. Kumar is a genuine swinger, I hope he is managed well. Well batted MSD, after your top order let you down. Again.

on December 30, 2012, 14:57 GMT

It was good game to watch. Junaid khan bowling was awsome today as was dhoni batting. B Kumar gave hope to Indian team with 1st ball wicket but Nasir Jamshed maked sure Pakistan chase the score succesfully. Younis khan partner ship with Nasir jamshed was very critical for Pakistan as was suraish raina wit dhoni partnership for India. In the end it was Pakistany team who maked sure that heriocs of Junaid khan do not go in vain.
Fighting sipirit of dhoni will help indian team to go in next match with high moral. I hope we can get more pitches like these where a good contest between bat and ball can be enjoyed.

Al_Bundy1
on December 30, 2012, 14:56 GMT

India needs to give a chance to Shami Ahmed. He can swing the ball both ways at speed of around140k. Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda are not strike bowlers. The most they can do is contain the batsmen.

on December 30, 2012, 14:52 GMT

Well Junaid was deserving MOM clearly. out class performance today leaving 3 main batsmen bowled. it was bad decision from the management though. And yes Excellent performance from Jamshed and so dhoni:). nice cricketing day I simply loved it. chennai crowed was much inspiring and was appreciating class performances form pakistan totaly different then banglore and ahmad abad.

alipk52
on December 30, 2012, 14:52 GMT

Well it was not a contest of batting by any means, today's match was a contest of swing bowling, i am glad to see Sohail Tanvir was (i wish will always) not given chance again, because of Tanvir, a true talent was wasted sitting in the dug-out, Junaid khan is very young, and believe it or not, he can create panic with his variations even on a flat tracks, like we saw in SL, UAE. So this swing bowling contest won by this young boy Junnaid, and B.Kumar, I.Sharma & Dinda all were outplayed by him in swing bowling...Typical Pakistani Swing bowling. Now waiting for His partner. i know there are many.

on December 30, 2012, 14:51 GMT

man of the match is suppose to be a person who turned the match in favor of his team dhoni played one of the best innings of his career but mom :) should have been given india's top performer award
india grow up

Pak_alldway
on December 30, 2012, 14:51 GMT

@badaewaj: no one to blame mate but indian board wen technology is there to minimise umpiring errors y not use it.but bcci ....laughing moment of the day was dhoni asking for review i think he was asking bcci not from umpire

on December 30, 2012, 14:50 GMT

Indian batsmen lack technique to play when ball start to swing n seam ... firstly english spinners spun their heads when indians prepared turning pitches and now pakistani pacers swing their heads when they produced a seamer friendly pitch no where to run and hide, indian selectors need to bring new talent and have to introduce more lively pitches in domestic cricket to bring more capable bowlers and batsmen.

on December 30, 2012, 14:49 GMT

This game has sum up India's 2012. Repeated batting collapses, one man saving his teams face, part timer's going for plenty and an ability to find an excuse after every defeat. Today the fans are blaming the umpires for their loss while their board is the only board which opposes the DRS technology.

Akshita29
on December 30, 2012, 14:49 GMT

Well played Dhoni. That was a great innings from him . And I remember England beat pakisthan in UAE 4-0 in the onedayers . India England series may turn out to be a very competitive one . But I would still back India to win that series . In the current series we would see some 300 pitches with India looking to utilize their bighitting abilities on batsman friendly pitches. Thats the best thing for India to do and hope Indian bowlers can just somehow restrict the Pak batsmen . Hope new year brings some good luck for team India.

on December 30, 2012, 14:47 GMT

I am realy shocked that Indian Team always have atleast 4-5 great batsmen right from the beginning till now, even today they have 7 good batsmen in their team even then they lost the match from Paki Tigers who hardly have any world class batsman. so the India's major problem from long long time is bowling, they should strengthen their bowling not batting..... there is something wrong with their mentle approach.

on December 30, 2012, 14:44 GMT

A good knock by Dhoni, But i think he should came earlier to bat, we all know when ball is moving yuvi is not performed well so dhoni should come before him, but i think he is a a smart cricketer than a smart captain he came when wicket became easy to bat, it was really good for him but not for india.

on December 30, 2012, 14:42 GMT

Magnificient piece of bowling by Junaid Khan. This reminds me of Mohammad Aamir - how beautifully he used to do the same thing - supported on the other end my Muhammad Asif.
Pakistan has'nt stopped producing quality pace bowlers yet.

Thyagu5432
on December 30, 2012, 14:38 GMT

This is a perfect example of a team deserved to win but another team was destined to win. India deserved to win but Pak was destined to win. Azhar Ali was dead duck the first ball he faced and the umpire was sleeping. Nazir Jamshed edged and was easily caught by Sehwag and the umpire refused to believe anything happened. Younus was again dead duck but the umpires continued their sleep. Shoeb was out and umpire suddenly decided to wake up and found that it was a no ball. While all this was happening, of all the fielders Yuvraj went off to sleep when he should have held on to that sitter. Dhoni's innings deserved a better result than this.

T-800
on December 30, 2012, 14:36 GMT

The team is not united. Viru, Gambhir and Virat Kohli want to topple Dhoni from the captaincy. Only Dhoni, Yuvraj and the bowlers are playing sincerely for the team but they can't be expected to perform every match. Time BCCI stepped in and removed the disruptive players. Disruption by the rebel alliance should not be rewarded with removal of captain

reality_check27
on December 30, 2012, 14:35 GMT

well india has good fast bowler should have played in this match his name is shami ahmed he regularly tops 140 and swings the ball both ways even in his third spell of the day he is known to bowl at 140 but the selection is poor i hope he gets to come in as soon as possible so we can have a fast bowling pool like shami ahmed, umesh yaadav, zaheer khan and ishant sharma we are going to need them as india tours southafrica next year

AndyHemu
on December 30, 2012, 14:34 GMT

Why did the Indian team not wear black armbands in memory of the girl that the nation lost this week? Do they not care? Do they not even want to be seen as caring? Very disappointing

TommytuckerSaffa
on December 30, 2012, 14:34 GMT

Pakistan are the real deal and the dark horse of sub continent cricket. I think they will be tougher opponents than India when they tour South Africa.

jimbond
on December 30, 2012, 14:34 GMT

Difficult to understand what Ishant Sharma is doing in the Indian team. Today the Indians missed a trick by misreading the pitch. They also failed to understand the main threat. Its sad to see that after Dravid and Tendulkar, none of the Indian top order can play straight. You can expect more of these collapses on any seaming track. Pakistan also has lot of deadweight (Shoaib, Afridi etc), but the others are carrying them at the moment.

on December 30, 2012, 14:31 GMT

At the time when he come to the crease his country loss 5 wickets, 10 overs not completed yet, ball was swinging in the air also with the turf. He kept his nerves under control and start nudging the ball. He extends his slogging in to 45 overs because he was already met with his tail. He reaches his personal milestone but as far to my concern this inning was one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE KNOCK. Despite that all his struggle going ineffective but WHO CARE
Thanks Mahi. Kaaaaash any paki skipper did the same thing. I took back all my criticism back from number of years. You may be no classy but you are a consistent Mahi. I simply salute you.

Well India came back well but Jamshed batted very well. And let me say its contest between indian batsmen vs pak bowlers. Today pak bowled really well and pak won the game. India desperately need good fast bowlers.

Solid_Snake
on December 30, 2012, 14:28 GMT

Pitch was favoring Junaid khan but dont forget the accurate line of Junaid.
He kept on bowling with dead precision & got the wickets.I cant stop laughing when people say that all those wickets were due the batsmen fault lol come on.All the batsmen had no idea what just hit them.Indian super star the big Kohli had no answer to Junaid's Amazing bowling.Hats off to Junaid & then to Jamshed,Younis..
Regarding Indian team->It was a total flop show except Dhoni who stood up & turned the match upside down..Looking forward to next matches.

aafishah
on December 30, 2012, 14:28 GMT

Arif Hanif Here ,I dont Understand why indian selectors not paying attention over playing with 5th bowler, not all the time batting can click for the team,India have trumendous talent in batting so that they can take chance by selecting 5th bowler as we have seen Ashwin is also playing well just imagine in similar conditions Praveen-B.Kumar-Irfan Pathan & Umash Yaduv then i think the chase 227 would a been like 260

on December 30, 2012, 14:26 GMT

I can't really understand why the selectors keep dropping Junaid Khan.....I mean he is a far far better bowler and of his own class than Suhail Tanvir...Tanvir relies on conditions..he got no pace...no bounce...no reverse swing..only outswing with a slow bowl..meanwhile junaid got pace..bounce...swing..reverse swing..and he is exceptionally well at the death overs...I don't really get why he keeps getting neglected..he proved it again! He is certainly one of the best fast bowlers in Pakistan bowling line up!

jaffar678
on December 30, 2012, 14:23 GMT

well played pakistan....especially junaid khan,he thrashed the indian top order,even so called strong indian batting lineup isn't strong enough!!

sachin_vvsfan
on December 30, 2012, 14:23 GMT

@bMike yeah i was expecting your srilankan side to get mudrolled in every part of the world(even on flat trackd) and thats what they have been doing.

@Bob Young Sorry England still has awful record in ODIs in india.

sheku125
on December 30, 2012, 14:22 GMT

why don't Pakisthanis drop Misbha? He has wasted so many balls to put pressure on the youngster. This has be en doing regularly and what an ordinary fielder he is. For the good of Pak cricket he should be made to realize that he has to put in good performance. What is Azhar Ali doing in ODI. He may not find place in any of top Indian Ranji One Day teams. Why not Play some other youngster?

on December 30, 2012, 14:22 GMT

The main issue with most of the Indian fans, still giving full credit to CSK players. Seriously CSK?? NO local team is important when it comes to your country but you love IPL more than your national team hence tasting defeat after defeat in your own home soil now. Just wait a bit, Aussies are coming after this series and England coming back too. Cricinfo please publish

on December 30, 2012, 14:19 GMT

Well-done team Pakistan and Dhoni also, next match will be 100% a flat wicket with almost 300 runs and Dhoni will try to contain Pakistani batsmen because he don't have a bowler to bowled them out so expecting India to win the next..
I also agree the indian team a flat track kings only....

Dhoni's Inning was special but MoM should be Given to Junaid Khan. How many Bowlers can bowled sehwag, kohli and yuvi like this ??

on December 30, 2012, 14:14 GMT

@iccexpert problem is all these bowlers are never heard off but most players play in india still won them loads of matches. look at ur record and then post man.

Prabhash1985
on December 30, 2012, 14:13 GMT

Pakistan can be very happy now. They have a good swing bowler like wasim, quickie like waqar namely Umar Gul, turner like Saqi namely Saed Ajmal, a cunning future captain-all rounder: the professor, a consistent opener-an attacker namely Jamshed. That's a full house! In 5 years, I think they will develop to be a dominating lot like WWI era! Good luck...

Dinda is good, but somebody said he is not good enough like Ishant Sharma. I argued with my Indian (not here) friends about Dinda that he is a good bowler while they say he is not good enough, but a funny bowler. But, I tell you, Dinda is a cunning bowler, but Ishanth Sharma is a genuine fast bowler. You should take care of him properly. He is a great value to your country, so as Umesh Yadav. Those people are rare. Save them. If they really love Indian cricket, what they should do is, they should make a full brigade, rather than a batting pack. I would like to see a genuine fast bowler from India, a great fielding(like Yuvi those days)

rsrinath
on December 30, 2012, 14:11 GMT

@bob young well of course it is 5-0 man....i hope you remember what happened to your team last year in those 5 ODI's....may be this time with norgan and pieterson around you guys can hope for 4-1 ..but england definitely doesnt stand a chance to win the series...

on December 30, 2012, 14:10 GMT

@Bob Young: Let's not forget that England got their asses handed to them, the last time they played Pakistan. I wouldn't be proclaiming an English victory quite yet.

SaadRocx
on December 30, 2012, 14:08 GMT

Azhar Ali is the new Mr.tuk tuk of pak team. and what happened to our magician ajmal? he,s helping his critics to prove that he can only bowl in UAE replace him with Babar if he doesnot perform and pak needs to improve its depth bowling...M.Irfan shoudnt be given bowl in depth overs. Hafeez you beauty :) what superb bowling...much better than Ashwin...

getsetgopk
on December 30, 2012, 14:04 GMT

The two left handers, Junaid and Irfan gave Indian batsmen a real hiding today. They missed a trick by trying to score freely of these two. Indian batters should have switched on the survival mode and they kept on loosing wickets until.. it was too late. Dhoni just prolonged the inevitable. Pakistan's batting is stronger than Indians think, India needs new batsmen and bowlers and also need to work on their fielding. Good solid performance by Pak, we just need to bring in Haris sohail in for Misbah and Sadaf Hussain or Zia Ul Haq for Umar Gul.

on December 30, 2012, 14:03 GMT

India fought back very well after 5 down, that shows their true potential, series is not over yet. don't say some that you end up eating your own words.

on December 30, 2012, 14:02 GMT

I agree with Insider.....110% true...I hope Team Pakistan will keep playing well and their performance will surely force both the boards to arrange next series in Pakistan for revival of cricket in our country as well.

tanveer131
on December 30, 2012, 14:02 GMT

@ICCexpert: I agree with you.Anwar Ali should get a chance. Dont make this tour another outing trip for him.

alisaqib610
on December 30, 2012, 14:02 GMT

Well played Pakistan. Jamshed and Junaid played very well. Hopefully you guys will continue like this.

jasincric
on December 30, 2012, 14:01 GMT

see Australia has a pack of 7 to 8 dangerous match winning fast bowlers (siddle,hilfenhaus,starc,mitchell johnson,pattinson,watson,mckay,pat cummins,bird) and see the package of dangerous pakistani fast bowlers (gul,junaid khan,irfan,wahab riaz)same is the case for south africa(steyn,morkel,philander,kallis,) and even west indies are also having a terrific fast bowling line up (best,roach,ravi rampaul,fidel edwards) and see our great indian bowlers(ishant,dinda,zaheer,irfan,umesh,praveen,vinaykumar,munaf patel,),are indian fast bowlers...... sorry indian medium pace bowlers looking dangerous??????? need to bring in sreesanth and umesh back and have to groom them to get wickets in test.also india are yet to find replacements for kumble and harbhajan.ashwin and ojha are not enough.just forget sehwag and gambhir their days have gone along with sachin.take out rohit and jadeja.bring in rahane,mtiwary,dhawan,saha who are consistently performing in domestic circuits.

on December 30, 2012, 14:01 GMT

Great Win.. india could not made 228 coz at the time score was 29-5 and dhoni's chance was missed by misbah.. i think after that dhoni was awesome.. funny to see the no ball of ashwin these kind of twist in cricket make it more exciting.. well played jamshed.. and junaid was fabulous .. Best of luck to both teams for next match..

IAS2009
on December 30, 2012, 13:58 GMT

Pakistan winning today was umpires fault, really? this is worse excuse one can hear, you can blame conditions, poor batting, good bowling from Pakistan but don't blame umpire when BCCI chose not to use DRS, it is laughable. England beat India because they have two umpires playing for them too. for god sake grow up.

on December 30, 2012, 13:58 GMT

Indian players and BCCI should have couple of more lessons in their stance against technology.

cyberstudent
on December 30, 2012, 13:55 GMT

leaving the Umar Akmal out side the Pakistani team was the best thing happened today. he takes his place as granted.

tony122
on December 30, 2012, 13:54 GMT

We must drop gambhir. He was always a good but not outstanding player. i can understand the hesitancy in dropping a great player like Sehwag-even though he is doing so poorly. But why Gambhir- there will be 2-3 similarly talented unknown openers in Indian domestic circuit. What made gmbhir good was his hard work and then form. has gone so must he. Then we must play Pujara in all forms of the game. The little we have seen of him so far he looks to have a good range of four hitting shots. He may not be in the mould of Tendulkar or Ganguli but he will regularly notch up 80-90 strike rate if he is made to understood his role in the team. He may surprise us with even better. Then Rahane has to be a certainty in the team. Rohit Sharma is a big liability, Yuvraj and Sehwag also need to be put on a notice. Yuvraj has done well in T20- but that is his speciality, when was the last time he won India a ODI - I guess 2011 WC. In bowling what is the status of Aaron,Sreesanth,Yadav,Gony,Pankj Sing?

universalanalyser
on December 30, 2012, 13:54 GMT

Decision of MOTM award is really poor,i challenge jury have no ethical values at all,Jamshed deserved it clear upper hand for a winning cause.the best they cud have done was to share in between them to provide any privilege for the losing side.Awful judgement.So sad to see Pakistan team on a receiving end most of the time.That shows true bias nature of an international sport.

on December 30, 2012, 13:53 GMT

@Chithsabesh: Ask BCCI to bring in the DRS then? Be a sportsman and appreciate who perform well instead of being biased. MS Dhoni played a marvelous innings under immense pressure ... Trust me even DRS can't help team india if they only know to play on batting tracks only. A sincere suggestion from a Pakistani fan!

P.S. Dhoni awarded Man of the Match just to cheer you up Indian people. So, dance on dat :D

Musafir366
on December 30, 2012, 13:52 GMT

I think choice of Man of Match was right. its not that only winning team should be given, look how dhoni single hand did for india, nor any batsmen nor any bowler was upto the mark. Or Dhoni, Junaid and Jamsheed can be given men of the match combine

on December 30, 2012, 13:51 GMT

congrats Pakistan for great win

on December 30, 2012, 13:51 GMT

Hey God...nobody follow cricket these days as much as I do.. any respected person go and tell ms dhoni and selectors of country to have different teams for t20 ,odi's and test and i bet that inida will win if they choose fthese teams
ODI: aksath reddy,unmukt chand,virat kohli,suresh raina,ms dhoni,r ashwin,yuvraj singh,irfan pathan,shami ahmed,pragyan ojha and umesh yadav..those days are gone when gambhir and sehwag used to set up india's victory..unmukt,umesh both performed well in australia and ashiwn can be handy with bat also....for t20s
-murali vijay,ajinkya rahane,suresh raina(he is playing at the spot for 5 years in ipl)virat kohli,yuvraj singh,ms dhoni,yusuf pathan(decent allrounder and world class hitter),irfan pathan,r ashwin,shami ahmed,pragyan ojha....my each team contain 5 batsman,3 allrounder,3 bowlers... in any case two batsman or bowler fail then allrounders can work...so world class team..india will win every match ...i check the statistics throught the day n i m rit.

cyberstudent
on December 30, 2012, 13:51 GMT

Junaid should be the Man of the Match, and those who are reeling over the umpiring should see that its the Indian team that have problem with DRS, so you should blame yourself not the umpires.

P.S: Somebody tell the Ashwin to stop destroying the spirit of the bowling with those awkward useless pauses.

Indian_Cricket_Fanatic
on December 30, 2012, 13:49 GMT

Bengal's shami ahmed averages around 20 -21 in his bowling in domestic circuit in limited overs.
where as Ishant Sharma averages very poorly in odis and t-20s.....yet ishant is chosen over shami ahmed..
dinda is really a fine talent as he knows to take wickets to be honest and forgiving his economy..he can take more wickets over time if he is given chances..
Pakistan does a good thing by giving youngsters early chance to face quality sides and india misses this trick..Sandeep sharma who led indian attack well in u-19 w-cup could be tried in t-20s or odis as he is doing well in domestic circuit as well.why do you wait for a bowler to age over 25-26 before judging and then expect him to start a career?
Batsmen are fine to judge over that age as they or spin bowlers have a career that can last upto the age of 37-39.Fast Bowlers should be groomed in early in their careers and should not be coached to bowl slower
Bhuvneshwar-praveen-irfan are bowlers who do well only in swinging conditions.

on December 30, 2012, 13:48 GMT

Indian fans are complaining about umpiring. Who was against drs? India. Right? They were the ones considering technology is not perfect. You better believe that what you see in replays is imperfect and believe on umpires decision.

rickyvoncanterbury
on December 30, 2012, 13:47 GMT

every Indian tells us westerners you need a world class spinner to beat India. it now looks like India needs a world class spinner. good win Pakistan

on December 30, 2012, 13:43 GMT

@ Chithsabesh Sivasankar Bharadwaj..... come on stop giving that as an excuse... Indian team and BCCI are the one who are constantly denying DRS saying that its ok if umpire make mistakes.... so when they do its because of BCCI's denial of DSR, they shall be ready to pay for such attitude.... accept that Indian players were not good enough against a moving ball and its not the first time... same happened in England and Australia as well... indians had their moments but they let it go as two lives to Jamshed (run out & dropped catch) and one to Shoib malik (Ashwin bowling no ball was nonsense)

on December 30, 2012, 13:42 GMT

Well done India... Yet another home loss. Still, you have the consolation that you're the World Cup holders.. that'll keep your spirits up until the next victory.. which appears an awful long way off... Any predictions as to your chances against England in a few weeks time ?

ICCexpert....
on December 30, 2012, 13:42 GMT

India always struggle against new fast bowlers against pak, M. Asif demolished them in Karachi, Umar Gul in Lahore, Shoaib Akhter in Kolkata, Wahab Reyaz in Mohali, Junaid Khan Today, so why not give Anwar Ali a chance in Kokata instead of Umar Gul ?? He is the next Swing sultan.

bMike
on December 30, 2012, 13:41 GMT

Well done Pakistan..!!! I was expecting flat track bullies to sink in their own mud and that's what exactly happened.

Mudassarali1990
on December 30, 2012, 13:41 GMT

Hats off to Nasir and Junaid ... What a performance the produced today.Especially the Pacer Junaid awesome spell of bowling from him that exposed India's so called strong batting line up once again They are the heroes of flat pitches only. I tell you what next match and you'll see a pure flat pitch where Indian so called lions will make loads of runs, poor chaps!
Well I think this is the team Pakistan should play with in all ODI,s, A perfect combination which includes Spinner like ajmal and hafeez, Pacers like Junaid,Irfan and gul And strong batting line up with the likes of Nasir,Azhar,Malikt etc.
Go Green Go!

on December 30, 2012, 13:41 GMT

well i believe umar akmal to be in the side in place of azhar ali
and india should be playing with 5 regular bowlers

on December 30, 2012, 13:40 GMT

So according to Dhoni they lost cause they lost the toss, weather was humid, they lost early wickets, they were short of a bowler and they had a couple of bad decisions. What was Pakistani team doing in ground ?? Selling mangoes ? :\

PhaniBhaskar24
on December 30, 2012, 13:39 GMT

I felt Bhuvenswar kumar is someone like Praveen kumar at his early stages. Swings both ways...but see where is Praveen Kumar now...I request the coaches not to mend Bhuvenswar kumar bowling arm..let him bowl as he is now...atleast we could see a bowler now who can atleast threaten the opposition in next 2-3 years...as Dravid Rightly Mentioned...we gave away too many chances to Rohit & Gambhir..whereas the actual potential is sitting on benches...

on December 30, 2012, 13:39 GMT

well played by Pakistan especially by Junaid's 4-43 and Jamshed's 101*, but Pak need to bowl well in slog overs and India need to focus on 5th bowler rather than picking a extra batsmen, Indian selectors had to think on to pick the correct players to bat and bowl, why they wont select rahane, Dhawan. Viru had to retire from the cricket and gambhir has to left from the team for next ODI and select the younger players.....
All the best to Pak and carry on the moment

on December 30, 2012, 13:38 GMT

For those who are counting umpires at Pakistan side should know that those umpires stands more with india players as compare to Team Pakistan since Pakistan is forced to limit its Internatonal Cricket. Anyhow good show by Team Pakistan though Dhoni had a great knock.

ICCexpert....
on December 30, 2012, 13:36 GMT

India has always been vulnerable to pakistans new talent of fast bowlers, Pakistan should pay Anwar Alli instead of Umar Gul in the next game, he has pace and he swings the ball miles. he will be a new international sensation for sure.

El_Toro_Loco
on December 30, 2012, 13:35 GMT

All those here praising Dhoni's innings should be thanking Misbah even more since he dropped an easy catch of Hafez's bowling when Dhoni was at 10-12 run mark. Otherwise India could've been wrapped up under 100 runs. Ciao....

on December 30, 2012, 13:35 GMT

Bad Presentation ceremony , junaid should be the man of the match!

Really bad!!!!

lukecannon
on December 30, 2012, 13:35 GMT

@disco_bob- West Indies are current champions and Sri lanka are ranked 1, I don't think India is even close to being "king" of the T20 format. Especially after not managing to win 2 consecutive T20 series at home.

on December 30, 2012, 13:34 GMT

Once again Shoib Malik hit the winning boundary against India!!!

Well batted Dhoni - One man show!!!
Well Played Pakistan - Good team effort!!!

landl47
on December 30, 2012, 13:34 GMT

Dhoni did everything he could, but the match was lost in Junaid's opening spell. With the greatest respect to Dhoni, Junaid should have been the MOM. This looked and played like a very good cricket wicket, with something in it for everybody. That's two good wickets in a row, so Indian curators can produce good wickets. Why then was the wicket at Nagpur such a terrible dead track? In the end that cost India its chance of levelling the test series. Let's hope similar wickets to this one are produced for the India/England ODI series.

RK.Chandru
on December 30, 2012, 13:33 GMT

I'm sure Tendulkar had he played, wouldn't have done any worse than Sehwag or Gauty. Two utter useless openers and India's greatest woes and liabilities since a long time....

lukecannon
on December 30, 2012, 13:31 GMT

@Chithsabesh Sivasankar Bharadwaj - Then why did your country refuse the DRS system? I m very confused. lol

iNsiDers
on December 30, 2012, 13:31 GMT

Well Played Team Pakistan !! We are Proud of you. 1st to level the T20 series with a team who players IPL day and night is an amazing achievement. And Now already leading the ODI series is something very special to the nation. You are already a Champion whatever will be the result.

T.R.GHANCHI
on December 30, 2012, 13:31 GMT

Well played Dhoni & Pakistan. Lets not take credit away from Dhoni, I think he tried very hard and fought like a warrior but Junaid and Jamshed were classy .

Keep up the good work !

cric4world
on December 30, 2012, 13:31 GMT

Misbah tried his best to gift this match to india.he chose a batting line up that is a test line up not one day. who was expected to increase run rate if needed? then his bowlers give him a score of 30/5 n spinners were completely in control and captain couldnt think of an attacking field set to finish indian innings? no short leg, no silly point, no short extra cover or short mid on mid off.when raina n dhoni werent able to hit at all misbah kept point fielder on boundary.he only stands at edge of circle expecting his bowlers to lbw or clean bowl every batsman.then he drops dhoni and while batting he was again tuk tuk n gone. does this pakistani captain even watch international cricket to learn about captaincy tactics at changing moments during a game? at 30/5 n ball doing everything for bowlers, u should have atleast 4 fielders in catching position

blueG
on December 30, 2012, 13:30 GMT

India always lose what a joke! how may time have england won the world cup? oh 0

LahoriLion009
on December 30, 2012, 13:29 GMT

Well deserved victo ry by TEAM GREEN. Nasir and Junaid are the star of pak win, dhoni also played well but one thing that i would like to add that chenai crowd deserved appreciation, they supported good cricket and cheered for it unlike of banglouru or ahmedabad

Good luck Green Shirts

on December 30, 2012, 13:29 GMT

What a pathetic display by Indian team , totally
Unprofessional no commitment at all they do not
Value their wicket and play like street cricket all the
Time ,
First sack the coach most useless piece of work
Get rid of sehwag Rohit ASAP biggest of burdens
Bring in rahan tiwari pujara and co
Never use Indian umpires better have overseas umpires
As the quality of the current ones we have is rubbish
Lets pray someone from BCCI reads this as we need
To do something drastic urgently before people stop
Watching cricket in India

RK.Chandru
on December 30, 2012, 13:28 GMT

Can someone tell me, why this waste fella, Rohit Sharma is in the team? In fact, Ashwin plays a lot better than the useless Rohit. Why is he getting so many chances failure after failure? Isn't it time we try another batsman like Unmukt or Aparajit in his place? He's utter waste and a liability to the team and so is, Ishant Sharma. We should try someone else like Pankaj Singh or someone instead of wasting time on people like Ishant, Praveen, etc.,

EjazMahmood
on December 30, 2012, 13:27 GMT

You can get away with having 4 specialist bowlers if the wicket is batting friendly as even specialist bowlers will go for runs but on the wickets with a bit for bowlers, the opposite team's batting targets the part time bowlers for runs and blocks the specialist bowlers. If 6 specialist batsmen can't do it, I don't expect the 7th to do it. Well done team Pakistan. Bowling wins matches.

on December 30, 2012, 13:24 GMT

I am fan of Dhoni & CSK. This is an unforgetable innings by Dhoni. Pl don't criticize Dhoni, he is a true captain, which is proved now. There are some players like Shewag, Rohit, Gambir, etc. who are all failures of late. They are big thorns in TEAM INDIA. Until these thorns are removed, I doubt India will ever have a chance to win in future. Also note CSK is THE TEAM and only CSK rescued India from a great disaster and saved the face.

on December 30, 2012, 13:23 GMT

"Junaid Jamshed" set up win....head line is intresting from cricinfo

Sheela
on December 30, 2012, 13:22 GMT

Pakistan bowlers bowled well whereas Indian bowlers, specially medium pacers, bowled too many short balls. There was no consistent length, line and direction. This has been the scenario in all three format of the games as far as Indian bolwers are concerned. Glaring thing was absence of wicket taking bowlers.

on December 30, 2012, 13:21 GMT

It is very difficult for India to win facing 13 men in the field. I include the Umpires . Nasir Jamshed was out long before. Younis Khan was also out. If those decisions went in favor The match would have been completely different.

on December 30, 2012, 13:20 GMT

for once give a bowler man of the match...junaid was the difference between the sides PERIOD!

wakaPAK
on December 30, 2012, 13:20 GMT

Great job Pakistan, a nice end to 2012! Dhoni was great after that dropped catch, rightly named MoM.India was in comfortable position to win this one as the ball was still moving in the second innings; credit should be given to Yunus Khan who's a class player on difficult wickets as suggested by his 4th innings average in test matches.India was short of a good bowling partner for Kumar to put pressure when the ball was new. Some Indians will understandably be complaining against umpiring but cricket is all about making chances and the bowling unit which produces more chances will prevail. Also I say it's about time we start supporting DRS because opposition to it is irrational; it's hurting India more than anyone coz of it's dependence on batsmen. Jamshed played a superb knock and some lovely strokes. Irfan was good and he shouldn't be disheartened by some awkward shots off his bowling towards the end of the innings. Junaid was awesome and his energy is incredible when he's bowling.

youknow
on December 30, 2012, 13:20 GMT

Pak wins and India lose, but what about the umpiring ?

on December 30, 2012, 13:18 GMT

its time to consider aswin as the batsmen as he bats well ,nowadays. so India should go with another specialist bowler,instead of a batsmen.....as asian batsmens are very good playing against spinners especially against part timers India must go with 5 specialist bowlers.

Fracker
on December 30, 2012, 13:18 GMT

Why dhoni is man of the Match? I thought India lost... Man of the Match Should b Junaid, which put India on the back foot, and in the end easy chase for Pakistan..

WickyRoy.paklover
on December 30, 2012, 13:18 GMT

I predictd pak vicktory during half way stage,thanks Allah pak pulled it of,they played it realy safe n hence consumed more ovrs than what i was expecting but it was all worth it,irfan should b rested as he iz suffring 4rm hamstring,ANOTHR QUICKIE Anwar ali should b given a go N haris should find his way in place of Azhar.

ramkmu
on December 30, 2012, 13:16 GMT

Pak superior team all-around and with outstanding youngsters they will be very hard to beat! Congrats to Misbah and his team!

jasincric
on December 30, 2012, 13:16 GMT

interesting to see the match is played in Chennai,and runs are scored only by the three players(dhoni,raina,ashwin)where all are from chennai super kings.anyone noticed this?

Winffx
on December 30, 2012, 13:14 GMT

Credit goes to both teams. Nasir Jamshed with his magnificent century, and Dhoni for keeping us at the edge of our seats. Junaid Khan deserves the 4 wickets he has taken and lets not forget Bhuvneshwar Kumar (We will remember that name). A great way to end 2012.

UsmanAkbar
on December 30, 2012, 13:14 GMT

Well played Pakistan. Very nice comfortable win. But for India the 5th bowler have lost them a match again. I dont know what other people think but due to this tactic of Dhoni india have lost more matches than won. I point my finger at dhoni.

CricketChat
on December 30, 2012, 13:13 GMT

Gambhir, Shewag, Rohit and Ashwin (despite few useful runs now and then, but a flop in his primary role which is, bowling) don't deserve a place in ODI format (may be even T20). They let down the team too many times in recent past. Ind would be better off trying new talent.

svel
on December 30, 2012, 13:13 GMT

sewag must retire... seriously...

Pubstar
on December 30, 2012, 13:12 GMT

sad to see dhoni's effort going in vain. i hate the TEAM SELECTION. Where is IRFAN PATHAN??? WHY the helll ROHIT is given dis many chance?? and dis GAMBIR,ROHIT and MOST IMPORTANTLY SEHWAG r wasting their place and not allowing the talents like RAHANE and PUJARA
I AM sure der is bigger politics in indian cricket
why sewag and gambir not getting dropped at all? why rohit is always picked insipte of his worst performance.. and y chances are not given for talents like rahane and irfan pathan, praveen kumar and all? sorry to say,
indian cricket will never prosper if dis trend continues

UsmanAkbar
on December 30, 2012, 13:11 GMT

Well played Pakistan. Very nice comfortable win. But for India the 5th bowler have lost them a match again. I dont know what other people think but due to this tactic of Dhoni india have lost more matches than won. I point my finger at dhoni.

on December 30, 2012, 13:10 GMT

Well done Pakistan. Keep it up!!!!!

on December 30, 2012, 13:10 GMT

Wish TEAM INDIA all the best and let the same team continue not only next ODIs' but for all matches in future also. As long Shewag is in the team I bet India will never win any matches in future. Another batsman is Rohit Sharma, like Yusuf Pathan, he had enough chances, he may fit to play only in domestic matches or may be for IPL.
Another advantage for Pak is our Great Ishant Sharma of course Dinda is shaping like Ishant, he shall be given more chances as given tp Yusuf Pathan

on December 30, 2012, 13:09 GMT

Excellent game of cricket.

NeutralOpinion
on December 30, 2012, 13:09 GMT

Ppl say Luck was wid Pak today but they dun hav courage to say abt india's bad performance in every department today..
Secondly, indian's dun hav courage to praise opponents good game. Misbah praised the good performance of MS Dhoni in his speech.On the other hand, dhoni said not a single word for the good all around performance of team Pakistan.

Absolute joke that Dhoni got man of the Match, Always favoring the Indians. Sure Dhonis hundred was good but his team lost, Jamshed opened the batting and carried his bat for a great hundred to win the game, He should of been man of the match. Even Junaid Khan had a better claim than Dhoni.

qaiserjaan
on December 30, 2012, 13:08 GMT

Again we can see the biasness...Junaid took 4 wickets , Jamshed Hits Match winning TON and still Dhoni is MOM. Same like Tendulkar..100 -100 - 100- 100 = Loss- Loss - Loss - Loss...

yashi.com
on December 30, 2012, 13:07 GMT

Roondo: look at india. They are very very bised and gave the MOM to dhoni. Jamshed clearly deserve this title if not him then junaid. But good work pakistanis best of luck.

reeja
on December 30, 2012, 13:05 GMT

good junaid jamshed combination. well done Pakistan, well played MS dhoni

Great win for Pak team and nation..Junaid is special..2-J done well job...Dhoni again proof there no captain like him....PCB pls give chance Haris Sohail in next matches.thanks.

Bota
on December 30, 2012, 13:04 GMT

LOL MS named man of the match.... actually match has been won by Jamshaid Khan.... He was the difference between both teams. But playing in India you ve to see such decisions ;)

Indian_Cricket_Fanatic
on December 30, 2012, 13:03 GMT

Awesome Innings by dhoni and jamshed. Poor Batting by India and india had lost the game at 29/5 itself. Dhoni somehow just prolonged it by finishing off and saving the embarassment.
I do not understand why was the Inform batsman Rahane dropped. Indians let emotions control their decisions and lose up. Dhoni should not have dropped rahane and should have played him in place of either openers.
India cannot go in without 5 bowlers. They need to have one good bowler in the side.How? I don't know. Part-timers are useless without over 300 on board. Unfortunately, so are the regular bowlers.
Sehwag-Gambhir aren't fit for cricket anymore.They are not able to give good starts. India are really missing the trick and they could really invest in rahane and pujara for odi's. Maybe in T-20 they can have viru-gauti.
Virat somehow seems to have lost his touch for a while.Yuvraj should not play ahead of raina in odi's unless its 15-20 overs left.Rohit, go home baby.
M. tiwary take his place lol

EnglishCricket
on December 30, 2012, 13:01 GMT

India are an ordinary team who struggle even at home. Such an easy win by Pakistan if I honestly must say, Pakistan need a better challenge instead of ordinary India who always lose for a nation of a billion. Nasir Jamshed knock was not only impressive but stayed unbeaten throughout was that extra bit special.

aativas
on December 30, 2012, 13:01 GMT

Well, Dhoni' century and India's loss. Is it something now people will talk about?
Dhoni's team selection baffles me, but not BCCI. So Indian defeat will go on ...as it is going now!

on December 30, 2012, 13:00 GMT

Why cant a bowler be given "Man of the match" although i agree Dhoni played well but if a bowler takes a 5 wicket haul and still loses its given to someone in the opposite camp who scored a 50 odd runs

I-Like-Cricket
on December 30, 2012, 13:00 GMT

Not completely sure Dhoni should've won the MOM award. Jamshed also scored a century and without Junaid's original spell Pakistan mightn't have won the match. That being said, congratulations to him on a wonderful fighting century. India need more of it.

CrICkeeet
on December 30, 2012, 12:59 GMT

DHONI is Man of the Match!!!! THE Greatest JOKE of the MATCH....IT must b JUNAID......

uzairamir
on December 30, 2012, 12:55 GMT

@shizam misbah did everything he can by using his best bowlers
@FRSH irfan started bowling bad because of his hamstring
@Harmony111 what are you saying?irfan has pace and bowls consistently around 145 kph

on December 30, 2012, 12:50 GMT

Yes!!!!! we did it........Love to beat india than any one else.........we are proud of you Pak team....

FRRR
on December 30, 2012, 12:49 GMT

Pakistan deserves to win ,,,, great bowling and good future batting lineup ,,,, India got lucky that they survived.

on December 30, 2012, 12:48 GMT

MS Dhoni today wearing Jersey No. 7, playing at 7th position, finishes 7000 ODI runs and becomes a 7th indian batsman to do so, smacked 7 fours and also making 100 runs partnership for 7th wicket. What 7nastic day for him!

Well done again Pakis, always luv to c u fite in all matches. And Nasir Jamshed, ur styles resembles to Saeed Anwar's

Bota
on December 30, 2012, 12:36 GMT

Congratulations to Pakistan. They are the better team today. Excellant chase... but just to thank Misbah that he was out cheeply ;)

on December 30, 2012, 11:56 GMT

Great match so far, hope to see Pakistan pull it off.

Great innings by Dhoni.

CricketFirstLove
on December 30, 2012, 11:44 GMT

AGain Dhoni showed the way how to bat. He continues to lead from the front. The big palyers around him should all be sacked. Sehwag and Ghambir must go if India has to redeem its position.

on December 30, 2012, 11:38 GMT

Pakistani fast bowlers are special to watch... Pakistan is nursery of Fast Bowling

vednarayaninfo
on December 30, 2012, 11:24 GMT

Pakistan looks hot favorite from here. It's good for England.

on December 30, 2012, 11:23 GMT

One of the finest ODI centuries ever scored by Dhoni.A champion batsman and a very good and lucky captain. Misbah on other hand is balancing factor as captain of Pakistan team.Call him Tuk-Tuk or what ever Misbah ice cool approach helps Pakistan win matches. Should hb been a 5 match series.

safiullah.asifi
on December 30, 2012, 10:57 GMT

How poor umpiring...... I havent seen such bad umpiring...

sweetspot
on December 30, 2012, 10:35 GMT

@Clifford Adams - Thank you! Right on about MSD! How many times does he have to do a rescue act? When can he play with abandon? Only when the batting gets its act together a little bit more! What an innings from Dhoni!

on December 30, 2012, 10:20 GMT

It is always the best combination of excitement, turning around and heat while Pakistan and India are playing against each other. Dhoni has played a marvelous captain innings and led from the front. I guess Pakistan will have to be steady and calm at this stage (69/2) and play according to situation. D/L can come into play if it rains. But hoping to see PAKISTAN as winner.

Bota
on December 30, 2012, 10:07 GMT

Misbah should not be the part of this Pakistan team. And he is captaining ... have to fell for Pakistan team

rickyvoncanterbury
on December 30, 2012, 10:03 GMT

it is good to see the Dhoni fan club come out, but what would have been said if my 9 year old caught that catch when he was 17 or so off 44 balls.

on December 30, 2012, 9:56 GMT

@shizam he did everything he could... what else he could have done???

on December 30, 2012, 9:19 GMT

My comments were made 3 hours ago, after Dhoni had gone in to bat, got back from church now and very happy to learn that Dhoni had endorsed my remarks with an unbeaten ton, which proves Dhoni alone isn't a problem and I reiterate the team members must all endeavour to effect greater responsibility, then fans will discover that Dhoni is King. Posters here must encourage their players and not only crucify Dhoni, his so-called friends and the selectors. - Cape Town, South Africa

on December 30, 2012, 9:17 GMT

dhoni completed 7000 run in odi format- congragulation

NanaNanu
on December 30, 2012, 8:56 GMT

Those people who always criticize Chennai Super kings,kindly take note on the Rescue act of our Indian ODITeam today by CSK players (Dhoni,Raina and Ashwin).All of us are Indians and we should encourage them wherever they hail from,North,South,West and East.Dhinda bowled excellently and Yuvraj was the star in the last 20/20.Rahane is the star of the future.

on December 30, 2012, 8:51 GMT

What a Innings from MSD , A captain's Knock that recovered India from 26/5 to 227/6 ,and Suresh Raina , who changed his style of aggressiveness and played a matured innings based upon the situation , Specially with No: 3 Jersey in ODI Cricket.

Harmony111
on December 30, 2012, 8:49 GMT

I haven't seen the match live, only followed on cricinfo - it seems Junaid bowled like fire and then Dhoni batted like a volcano. I had almost visualized that 49th over for 21 runs - wow. Traditionally Chennai is a flat wicket so 227 is not enough but I hope it wont be easy for Pak to chase this down. It seems the moisture is all gone now cos Dhoni looked like batting very freely but may be the new ball will help India and set the match for them. Is this Junaid Khan the same guy who was playing in the County some months back? He looked impressive then too. I suspect Pak has some cloning factory somewhere where they are constantly mixing best elements of the past fast bowlers to make new ones - this is not fair.
As for Mohd Irfan - while ppl are going gaga over him I don't think he is all that good. He doesn't move the ball much - does he? And he is not too fast either, 140-42 at most I guess. Let's see what he does in the future. Hope the match is as exciting as the 2 T20s...

on December 30, 2012, 8:46 GMT

Good recovery... this is one of the best ODI innings we can see.. thank you Dhoni raina and ashwin....

SalilN
on December 30, 2012, 8:46 GMT

Only CSK players played well so far at Chennai as long as batting is concerned...I wont be surprised :P...Thanks to IPL for saving the game....Hopefully, Ashwin and Raina duo would do some magic in terms of bowling.

shizam
on December 30, 2012, 8:46 GMT

Once again very poor captaincy by Misbah. It was Misbah who cost Pakistan the wc semi final against india by batting very slow and today once again he showed poor captaincy by not attacking the inidian batting after 5 wickets had fallen for only 29 runs. I mean how could you allow a team to score 227 when at one stage they were 29 for 5. He also dropped Dhoni when he was at 16. Why is Misbah in the team anyway. We need to ask the question whose side Misbah is anyway.

matchfixerpkn
on December 30, 2012, 8:44 GMT

amazing..some how dhoni brings his best agianst pakistan..
and makes his lost form back !!!
remember same with shoib malik...his form also 100% aganst india....

12kris
on December 30, 2012, 8:43 GMT

It is surprising that Cricket reporters fail to see the obvious. The pitch was seaming menacingly for the first 15-20 overs, after which it settled down. No doubt, Junaid Khan bowled well, but even Hafiz was difficult to play in the initial period.
This is not to take any credit away from Dhoni. He did a great job.

on December 30, 2012, 8:43 GMT

Mahi played captains knock here, its great comeback by India after being 5 down for 29runs in 10th over. If India can take wickets with new ball then there will be a good chance of victory

on December 30, 2012, 8:40 GMT

no replies after good recovery!!!!! well played dhoni....... :)

FRSH
on December 30, 2012, 8:37 GMT

PK need to get rid of Umer Gul and Misbah as Quickly as possible. Furthermore, this over hyped Irfan is a bowler who can bowl four - six overs and better to be utilized in T20 for a couple of years before shelved for good.

salariaricky
on December 30, 2012, 8:37 GMT

good mr.dhoni.....whenever conditions are favourable he promotes himself ahead of rohit and raina ..today situation was bit different...he sent rohit and raina to be axed..gr8.....himself became hero (probably)...i did nt see the match but score of ashwin showing batting was relatively easier in latter part....

on December 30, 2012, 8:36 GMT

dhoni takes ind @ fighting score

on December 30, 2012, 8:33 GMT

Dhoni all the way...now onto bowling

solefight
on December 30, 2012, 8:32 GMT

That the way .. Mahi Way!!! One of the best ODI knock...

on December 30, 2012, 8:29 GMT

Nice come back by India. well played Dhoni. Pak has to make effort to cross the finishing line. Let us see ...

on December 30, 2012, 8:28 GMT

Why Rohit sharma still in ??? why not Rahane...

Bota
on December 30, 2012, 8:27 GMT

Well played MS. I think best thing happend ti Indian team is that Misbah is back for Pak.... he is the best opponent what Pak can have. Just dropping a dolly and see what MS has achieved. And one thing more Misbah will lose the game for while bating.
Sorry for Misbah and Pak team has to pay for it.

kc69
on December 30, 2012, 8:24 GMT

This is probably one of the greatest fightback by Indian batting in recent times.Hats off to MS Dhoni-Greatest finisher of the game.

BRKRISHNA
on December 30, 2012, 8:21 GMT

Why do we have Rohit Sharma included in the team match after match? Why?

Cricket_Fan_And_Analyst
on December 30, 2012, 8:21 GMT

MS Dhoni - Hats off . What a player !!

Jack_India
on December 30, 2012, 8:21 GMT

Dhoni/Ashwin pull off a Kapil/Kirmani.

on December 30, 2012, 8:20 GMT

thts why we got dhoni who pulled 17 runs in 5 balls

CriticallyCricket
on December 30, 2012, 8:14 GMT

Dhoni played like a Captain!

Great Innings....no matter what the result!

I_Love_Pakistan
on December 30, 2012, 7:10 GMT

Today pakistan have good batting and bowling line. Bowling side specialy junaid khan has some potential he can do some thing for pakistan. i know him personaly he is realy gud bowler.

Solid_Snake
on December 30, 2012, 7:03 GMT

Ho ho ho...Somebody Stop this hot headed Pathan Junaid..
He is showing his anger for not letting him play the T20 WC lol

on December 30, 2012, 6:58 GMT

A brilliant spell of bowling from Man In Green Junaid Khan

charithdasun
on December 30, 2012, 6:46 GMT

Junaid Khan U are terrific.U would be best young fast bowler in asia without debate.
Pakistan quickies are the best gifted bowler in the world.Don't get involved in unnecessary activities like some of your colleges did.I wish U All the best.

Attractivue
on December 30, 2012, 6:40 GMT

Afridi should have been given a chance, again!!!

romirom
on December 30, 2012, 6:37 GMT

why these 3 azhar, younis n misbha playing together. At least haris sohail sud hav ben their insted of any of these 3.

Resultpredictor
on December 30, 2012, 6:28 GMT

Good start by Pakistan but India can bounce back strongly. Great swing bowling by Junaid Khan.

on December 30, 2012, 5:57 GMT

India 50/5! Who is the problem? Many Indian posters have recently blamed Dhoni for India slump from No. 1 down to the gutters. I suppose they are going to blame Dhoni for Seywag, Gambhir, Kohli, Vuvraj and Rohit. If the players don't come to the party in proper attire with all guns blazing, and a rot sets in, blame the captain, blame him for having special friends in the team. I am a neutral South African and I say Dhoni alone is NOT the problem. Blame the India batsmen and blame Junaid Khan and Irfan for having created India's downfall with superb bowling.

disco_bob
on December 30, 2012, 5:53 GMT

Not a problem, India may have been thrashed by England at home in Tests. And Pakistan have wrecked utter devastation here, but that's why we have three formats! India is still King of the T20 format and that is what really matters.

on December 30, 2012, 5:36 GMT

Presenting JI after 2W's. Pakistani bowlers have exploited the conditions well with some help from the loose batting by Indian batsmen... Star of the day: Junaid Khan!!

Mr.Blacksmith
on December 30, 2012, 5:29 GMT

india 30/5 in 9 overs. what is going on? Poooor bating? or excellent bowling? but i think this is weather effects. pak too will face these conditions.

rickyvoncanterbury
on December 30, 2012, 5:06 GMT

So after 6 overs of this game I can see why Indian supporters are so confident of beating Australia , they handle left hand pace so easily, look out Starc and Johnson.

getsetgopk
on December 31, 2012, 4:40 GMT

Who ever worked with Junaid to get his swing going has done a wonderful job as Stark pointed out. He didn't swing the ball at all but was more of a seam movement. Last time he played in a test match in SL, he gave the SL batsmen a little nightmare but time was way too short for him to make an impact. I think he has done enough to cement his place in the side. Gul should now be taken off this team. There are other talented youngsters (lefties) far better than Gul. Junaid has now become a complete bowler, has got pace, accuracy, swing and the skill to move it both ways, makes for one deadly combination in a bowler. Was much impressed with the fact that there were hardly any extras or any bad balls he bowled during his entire spell. Amazing bowler, its been a while we haven't witnessed a great swing bowler, will be a treat to watch in the coming days and years.

Lovetesh
on December 31, 2012, 2:41 GMT

Dhoni 4 bowler tactic is costing games. In this game also India's 5th bowler (Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli) went for 76 runs in their 10 overs. You can go with 4 bowlers only when your bowlers are world class and match winners like Akram, McGrath, Kumble etc. Problem with this tactic is that opposition has no pressure to score or take risk against your main bowler. Also if one of your bowler has an off day then you have nowhere to hide, you have to bowl him. India need 5 proper bowlers to defend whatever they score with 6 batsmen. Which means drop Rohit Sharma and play a bowler instead.

Nampally
on December 30, 2012, 22:35 GMT

Glorious century from Dhoni & fine supporting actions by Raina & Ashwin, saved India from shameful batting. India badly needs a sheet anchor who holds one end up no matter what happens at the other end. Dhoni did an admirable job not only holding the end up but attacking as well. Indian top batsmen's defence was so poor that a coaching camp just for improving the fundamentals may be needed. C.Pujara's defence should be a model for the team to emulate. Legends like Gavaskar back Kohli for Captaincy while he is struggling to hold his place in the XI.Apart from a century in one Test match vs. England, Kohli has not done much to guarantee his place in the Indian team.After openers, I like to see the batting order: #3 Pujara, #4 Kohli,#5 Ashwin,#6 Yuvraj, #7 Dhoni,#8 Raina or S.Nadeem, B.Kumar,Shami Ahmad &Ishant. Pujara is too good a batsman to be left out of ODI & so is S.Nadeem as the 5th bowler.Rohit & Mishra should make way for these 2, for India to be competitive.Selectors: Pl. ACT.

rickyvoncanterbury
on December 30, 2012, 5:06 GMT

So after 6 overs of this game I can see why Indian supporters are so confident of beating Australia , they handle left hand pace so easily, look out Starc and Johnson.

Mr.Blacksmith
on December 30, 2012, 5:29 GMT

india 30/5 in 9 overs. what is going on? Poooor bating? or excellent bowling? but i think this is weather effects. pak too will face these conditions.

on December 30, 2012, 5:36 GMT

Presenting JI after 2W's. Pakistani bowlers have exploited the conditions well with some help from the loose batting by Indian batsmen... Star of the day: Junaid Khan!!

disco_bob
on December 30, 2012, 5:53 GMT

Not a problem, India may have been thrashed by England at home in Tests. And Pakistan have wrecked utter devastation here, but that's why we have three formats! India is still King of the T20 format and that is what really matters.

on December 30, 2012, 5:57 GMT

India 50/5! Who is the problem? Many Indian posters have recently blamed Dhoni for India slump from No. 1 down to the gutters. I suppose they are going to blame Dhoni for Seywag, Gambhir, Kohli, Vuvraj and Rohit. If the players don't come to the party in proper attire with all guns blazing, and a rot sets in, blame the captain, blame him for having special friends in the team. I am a neutral South African and I say Dhoni alone is NOT the problem. Blame the India batsmen and blame Junaid Khan and Irfan for having created India's downfall with superb bowling.

Resultpredictor
on December 30, 2012, 6:28 GMT

Good start by Pakistan but India can bounce back strongly. Great swing bowling by Junaid Khan.

romirom
on December 30, 2012, 6:37 GMT

why these 3 azhar, younis n misbha playing together. At least haris sohail sud hav ben their insted of any of these 3.

Attractivue
on December 30, 2012, 6:40 GMT

Afridi should have been given a chance, again!!!

charithdasun
on December 30, 2012, 6:46 GMT

Junaid Khan U are terrific.U would be best young fast bowler in asia without debate.
Pakistan quickies are the best gifted bowler in the world.Don't get involved in unnecessary activities like some of your colleges did.I wish U All the best.